


When a Demon Falls In Love

by slaughterSnake



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Eventual Smut, M/M, Sadstuck, Tentabulges, demon!Karkat - Freeform, demon!Trolls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-10 14:16:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 27,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/786988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slaughterSnake/pseuds/slaughterSnake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Curiosity will be the death of you. You regret nothing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Greetings

               It’s another uneventful day in Hell. It has been like this for as long as you can remember. Most of your friends are trolling the humans, messing with their lives from the computer terminals. You used to do that too, but it got old quickly. Until that one time when you came across this human’s timeline. You’d wanted to learn more about him since then. You watched his every move, studied his daily routine, and waited for the right moment to go and talk to him in person. For weeks you’ve been just waiting and watching and waiting and watching…

Your name is Karkat Vantas and you are bored, again. You decide to take a look at the human you’ve been stalking for the past three weeks. Why did he pick your attention, you ask? Because he looked different from the other humans. Maybe it was the nearly white hair, or the shades he never seems to take off, there was just something about him that made you curious.

                Today he was coming back from a club, as usual, and he looked a little tipsy. It was late at night and no other humans could be found on the streets. You decide that’s the perfect opportunity to put your plan in action. You’re going to finally introduce yourself to the human.

                You step under the light of a lamppost, casually leaning against it.

                “Hello, Dave.”

                “What the fuck?!” His voice shows surprise and maybe a little fear, but the shades prevent you from seeing the reaction on his face. “Who –no, _what_ the hell are you? And how do you know my name?”

                “I’m Karkat Vantas and I’m a demon. I’ve been watching you for the past three weeks.”

                “You mean, like, stalking?! Why would you do that? Do you want my soul or something? ‘Cause I’ll tell you now, you ain’t getting shit from the Strider here.”

                “Of course I don’t want your fucking soul! Why do you stupid humans always jump to that conclusion? Anyway, I’ve been stalking you because I find you to be different from the other humans and, as I had nothing better to do, I decided to find out more about you.”

                Dave’s head moved to the sides, checking to see if there was no one around, and then back at you.

                “Look, if this is another lame attempt of pulling a prank on me, I’ll kill you, and John too.” You roll your eyes at that. As if this puny human would ever be able to kill a mighty demon like yourself.

                “Is this John a human – what do you call it? – friend of yours?”

                “So, you don’t know him?”

                “I’ve only followed you, not the humans you have contact with.”

                “Yeah, John is my friend. I think I drank a little too much - I’m talking to a fucking demon here - and it’s late and it’s getting cold. I’m going home.” And with that he resumes walking, not even looking back to see if you were following him.

                You go after him to his lair, even though you already know the location. His apartment is on the top floor of a boring-looking building. The walk up is silent; he may have forgotten about you. Meanwhile you side-look at his shaded eyes, imagining what color his irises would be.

                He goes to the bedroom and falls in the bed, ignoring you completely. You remind him of your presence.

                “Hey, fuckass!”

                “What?” His voice is muffled by the pillow.

                “I didn’t come all the way up here and introduced myself just to watch you sleep, so get your lazy ass out of bed and answer my questions!”

                He turns his head to the side, so you can understand him better. “Not gonna happen, dude. Too tired.”

                You ponder for a second and decide that if you’ve waited this long, you can wait a few more hours.

                “Fine. But you _will_ talk to me in the morning.”

                “Afternoon.”

                “I’ll get you out of the bed and hold you on the outside of this window if you don’t get up in the morning and fucking answer to my questions!”

                “Ugh, fine, whatever.”

                He was asleep the moment he closed his eyes and you had nothing to do but wait…

 

 


	2. Questions

               Your name is Dave Strider and you had the weirdest dream ever. You were walking on the street at night, and then someone appears under the light of a lamppost. But it wasn’t human! It had horns and wings and a fucking tail. The creature told you he was a demon and he was stalking you… Great, now you have a headache too. You hate hangovers.

                You open your eyes just enough to see your phone screen: three unread messages from John on Pesterchum. You’ll get to that later, now you need a painkiller. As you walk to the bathroom, your peripheral vision tells you there’s a body on your couch. You ignore it for the time being, your only goal is to get that medicine.

                When you finally get to the living room you hear a scream. You realize it was yours, and it was a totally manly one. There is indeed a body on your couch: the body of the creature of your dream.

                He must have been asleep, but your _vocalized surprise_ woke him up. He stretched his dark grey wings and you could see they were huge, almost twice the size of your couch! They didn’t seem to be that big in your dream… and you start to think it wasn’t a dream at all.

                “You’re late. I said morning and it’s nearly one in the afternoon!”  His eyes were shining bright red and you don’t think that’s a good thing.

                “Whoa, calm your tits, man! I wasn’t even sure yesterday really happened, I thought it was a dream or something!”

                “No, it wasn’t, I’m here. I have questions and you will give me answers.”

                Well, it was a Saturday and you had nothing important to do, anyway. You make yourself comfortable in one side of your couch while the creature sits on the opposite arm, facing you. A few minutes pass and you can’t bear the silence any longer.

                “Didn’t you say you had questions?” You ask, tentatively,

                “I did.”

                “So… why aren’t you asking them?”

                “Because I don’t know where to start, dipshit!”

                “Can I ask you a question, then?”

                “Sure, go ahead.”

                “What’s your name, again? And what exactly are you?” You couldn’t remember, no matter how hard you tried.

                “I told you yesterday. My name is Karkat Vantas and I’m a demon.” He looked a little disappointed you didn’t remember that basic information, but, come on, you weren’t even sober!

                “Ok, so, do the other demons stalk people too or is it just a Karkat thing?”

                He puts a finger close to his mouth and starts biting on his yellow claw. “I think Kanaya stalks a human too, but she’s done that for years, and for reasons that are completely different from mine.”

                “What are her reasons?”

                “A demon doesn’t talk about his/her reasons to stalk humans with anyone other than the stalked one. And even though Kanaya’s reasons are pretty obvious, I’m not allowed to discuss them with you.”

                “Fair enough.” You get a little curious about the demons, but your face shows nothing.

                “What’s the color of your eyes?” Whoa, you didn’t expect this one so soon. You take your time to answer because, in reality, you are ashamed of your eye color. When you were little, the other kids would laugh at you and make fun of you because of it. That was when your Bro gave you awesome shades, just like his… You realize you started to drift off in thought when Karkat pokes your shoulder.

                “Ouch! Watch out with that thing!” His claw was kind of pointy, but it actually didn’t hurt, you were just being a little dramatic.

                “Humans are so pathetically soft… You haven’t answered my question yet.”

                “I don’t like the answer to that question.” You admit, but still remove your shades and look up at the demon.

                “They’re red. Like, mine… Does that mean you’re a mutant too?” So, he’s not just a demon, he’s a _mutant demon_?

                “What do you mean ‘too’? Are you a mutant? How can a demon be a mutant?”

                “The color of a demon’s eyes shows the color of their blood. Candy red blood is an anomaly among the demons.”

                You think it’s a little odd for someone to open up about an anomaly with a stranger… but then again he’d been following you for nearly a month, he may not consider you a stranger at all. You see he’s growing impatient, so you decide to answer him.

                “My red eyes show that I’m kind of a mutant too. That and my hair.” Karkat seems to be deep in thought and your living room becomes silent once more.

                That is, until your stomach reminds you quite loudly that you haven’t eaten anything yet.

                “Hey, man, talking has been nice and all, but I gotta grab something to eat.”

                “I’m not done with the questioning, human!” His eyes dart back at you.

                “Well, I don’t know how a demon feeds, but this human here needs food right now.” You get up from the couch and go to the bedroom for a change of clothes. Karkat follows you and you simply ignore him as you take off your shirt.

                “What if I come with you?” You stop, shirt in your hands, and look at him as if he was the most naïve creature to ever walk on the face of Earth.

                “With those horns and gigantic wings showing up? Not gonna happen. you’d scare the living shit out of the humans out there.” And you go back to dressing up. When you’re about to leave the room, a clawed hand on your chest stops you.

                “Are _you_ scared of me?” You remember you left the shades in the living room, so Karkat is staring right into your red irises. His look is so intense he could be staring into your very soul.

                You try to keep your cool façade on, but the truth is, you _are_ scared of him. He’s not even human, for fuck’s sake!

 “Not really.” You shrug.

“Why are lying to me, human? I can smell the fear, even if it’s faint.” His claws on your chest push a little deeper, not enough to hurt, and you can actually _feel_ a threat. “Don’t you dare lie to me.” His low voice was intimidating and you start to walk back. When you feel the wall behind your back, Karkat removes his hand from you and retreats to the living room. You follow him.

“Hey, yeah, I admit you scare me a bit, ok? I lied ‘cause Striders are supposed to be fearless and all…” You scratch the back of your neck, a little embarrassed to admit this.

“That’s stupid. Everyone fears something.” Karkat says. You get curious over this. What could a creature like him fear? But as your stomach complains again, you forget about it, grab your keys and go for the door.

“You not coming?” You realize he won’t go away anytime soon, so, against better judgment, you decide to try and befriend the demon.

He looks at you, gets up from the couch and start climbing down the stairs without a word. You think it’s odd, but leave it for now. Even if you asked him about it, you probably wouldn’t hear the answer over the loud complaining sounds your stomach was making…


	3. Hell Problems

                This Dave human is really intriguing. He’s a mutant too, and very brave, for a human. He’d dared lie to you, after all. You find yourself becoming more and more interested in his character and refuse to leave him alone from now on. You’ll learn everything about him, even if it’s against his will!

                That’s why you’re climbing down the stairs of his building with him. He thinks the other humans will be scared if they saw your horns and wings and the moment you both step outside, on the sunlight, he looks at you and you get exactly the reaction you were waiting for.

                “Where the fuck did your wings go? And your horns? And why does your skin looks like mine instead of grey?”

                “Demons can do that if they want. They can hide such features. This little ability has allowed us to live among humans and torment them for centuries.” You begin to walk and Dave soon catches up.

                “Torment humans, huh? It makes sense and all, but, why aren’t you tormenting me?” He asks.

                “I’ve tormented humans for a long time, but I got bored. That was when I saw you and made you my little observation project.”

                He merely nods in acknowledge. You keep walking until you reach Dave’s destination: a fast-food restaurant. You should have guessed. His eating habits are terrible for human standards. He goes in and you follow him. You both keep quiet in line, waiting for your turn. Dave orders for himself and looks at you questioningly. It takes a moment for you to get what he means.

                “The same as you.” You say when you realize he was asking what you wanted to eat.

                Dave orders a takeout and you head home. When you’re at his apartment again, he asks:

                “Do you even eat human food? I mean, I didn’t know and I wouldn’t ask ‘hey demon, do you eat this shit too?’ in front of all those people, ‘cause it would make me look like a crazy person, asking about demons’ eating habits and shit…”

                “I understand. And yes, I enjoy human food, but as a practically immortal being I actually don’t need to feed. Demons often enjoy the taste of human emotions, though, specially fear.” He seems to think about what you said while eating his French fries and a thought occurs to you.

                “I came to you to asks questions and satisfy my curiosity, but instead _I’m_ answering _your_ questions.” He looks up at you.

                “That’s your fault, not mine.” Then you make up a little rule.

                “From now on I will ask the questions and you will only answer them. You’re not allowed to ask me anything. Is that clear?”

                “Yeah, sure, whatever.” He shrugs, not taking his eyes off his fries.

                His phone buzzes you look curiously over his shoulder to see John is pestering him again. The other human was asking Dave for dating advice, it seems. He was talking about this girl he met in a club last week and was describing her and telling Dave how perfect she was. When you read the description of the female you start to laugh. Dave looks at you questioningly.

                “What are you laughing at?”

                “This John human, friend of yours. He has absolutely no idea what he’s getting into with that female.” You say, still snickering a little.

                “What do you mean? Do you know her? You said you didn’t know other humans besides me.” Did you just detect a pang of jealousy? No, you certainly didn’t.

                “I know her, but she’s not a human. She’s a demon.” Dave’s expression is unreadable again.

                “Should I warn John?” He sounds worried. Did he not trust demons could be perfectly civil if they wanted to? Why do you feel disappointed? Whether Dave trusts demons or not doesn’t matter, you’re here just to satisfy your curiosity about him.

                “It’s no big deal. She’s a bitch, but she won’t harm your human friend. She’s only aggressive towards other demons.”

                You watch as Dave types date tips and pickup lines to his friend. When he turns his attention to you again his expression changes completely. He looks really scared, but he’s not looking at you, he’s looking at some point behind you, so you turn around to see another demon standing in Dave’s apartment. It’s actually another demon, Sollux. You start to worry a little bit, because he never comes to the human world…

                “KK, you need to come back. Now.” That doesn’t sound good.

                “Why? What’s going on?”

                “The Boss had gone crazy and he’s threatening to kill everyone.” That’s definitely not good.

                “Damn! I’m coming right away.” With that, Sollux disappears in a cloud of dark smoke and goes back to Hell. You look back at Dave, who doesn’t seem to get shit of what’s going on.

                “I have to take care of a problem down there now, but I will come back. Don’t think you’ll get rid of me so easily, human.” And you too disappear in a dark cloud of smoke.

* * *

 

                When you get home Sollux comes to fill you in about the situation. He is one of the few demons who know about your power. You think it’s no big deal, but it comes in handy in cases like this. He leads you to the Boss’ lair and leaves you to your mission. You knock on the huge door before coming in.

                It’s pitch black inside and you rely on your great night vision to see where you’re going. You hear a faint noise coming from further inside the lair, like a deep laugh. It gives you shivers, but you’re the only one who can talk the Boss out of his insanity. You finally spot him painting the wall with something you desperately wish is not blood.

                It _is_ blood, though, and you can see the corpse of the demon lying beside the Boss. You carefully approach him, as quietly as possible, but he hears you and tackles you to the ground. His pupils are dilated and blood-shot. His grin is wide and scary, the face of a crazy murderer.

                You tentatively put one hand on his arm and time seems to stop around you. You look intensely into his eyes and soon he is as docile as a baby human. You leave the lair as soon as you can and go back to Sollux.

                “He’s dealt with. But keep in mind that next time I may not be here to help.”

                “Why? Did a human sweep you off of your feet, KK? Maybe that human you were talking to earlier?” He says, wriggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

                “Shut the fuck up, Sollux! I am not, nor will I ever be in love with a puny human!” You feel your cheeks getting warm and disappear from Hell, back to the human world, before Sollux could notice.

* * *

 

                It’s nighttime when you make it back to Dave’s apartment and you notice he’s not there. You find a note addressed to you on the coffee table.

                _hey demon_

_im out for a bit didnt know how long itd take for you to come back_

_anyway if you come back before i do im at johns_

                You read the note over again and wonder why he would tell you where he was. He probably knew you could find him if you wanted to.

                Would you try to find him immediately if he hadn’t left this note, or would you wait for him? The answer is obvious: you would look for him. You start to wonder if all you’ve been doing is really just curiosity and Sollux’s words come to your mind.

                You dismiss those thought immediately, because they make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

 


	4. Drunk

                You, Dave Strider, have officially gone nuts. You’ve been talking to a demon all day, then another demon shows up at your apartment talking about shit that’s happening in fucking _Hell_ , then they both disappear and you’re left alone with no explanations.

                You need a drink. Now. Who cares if it’s the middle of the afternoon? Not you.

                You take the first bottle of alcoholic stuff you can find and take a large sip, then you put it back and go take a shower since your body haven’t seen water since yesterday. Bad idea, though, because showers are perfect for thinking. And your mind starts drifting off to Karkat. You make a mental list of what you know about him: he’s a demon, he doesn’t eat, he’s a demon, he has stalked you for weeks, he’s  fucking _demon_ , he’s kinda hot, he’s… –wait, what? Since when did that thought cross your mind? You can’t help but remember how big and strong his wings are, or how his horns look so nubby and cute, or the bright red of his eyes.

                Yeah, you’re definitely crazy.

                You step out of the shower, put on a fresh change of clothes, grab your phone and when you’re about to get out, you have an idea and call John.

                _“Hello?”_

                “Sup, man?”

                _“Oh, hi, Dave!”_ John sounds as happy as ever. How he manages to do it, nobody knows.

                “I was thinking, how about a party tonight? At your place? I’ll be the DJ” You offer.

                _“Uh, I don’t know, Dave. Vriska and I had a date tonight.”_ No, no, no, he has to say yes. You _need_ a party.

                “Invite her to the party, then. And you know parties are great opportunities to hook up with the chicks.”

                _“DAVE! She’s not like that!”_ You can practically see him blushing.

                “Whatever, man. Yes or no?”

                _“…fine.”_ Score!

                “Okay, I’ll be there by seven, you call everyone.” And you hang up, take all the DJ stuff you’ll need, put them in your shitty car and drive to a store to buy some booze.

 

* * *

 

                It’s nearly seven when you arrive at John’s house. You take your equipment and the booze in and set everything up. Vriska is already there and she doesn’t look mad at you for practically ruining her date. Quite the opposite, actually.

                “You must be Dave.” She says.

                “The one and only, babe.” You say with a wink, thought she can’t see it because of your shades.

                “John talks about you all the time.” No surprise there, really. You’ve been friends since you were toddlers. “You don’t seem to be a bad friend.” Her eyes sparkled with something akin to possession. You wonder what she would be capable of if someone hurt John.

                Speaking of him, John enters the room at that very moment.

                “Oh, so you guys already met! Good. Dave, I’ve called everyone, like you asked. The only one that said he wouldn’t come was Jake.” Why wouldn’t Jake come? He never refuses a party… And then it hits you, like a bucket of cold water. You remember what day is today. Your face gets even whiter and you lose your balance for a second.

                “Dave, are you okay?” John comes to prevent you from falling to the ground.

                “Yeah, I’m fine, just got a little dizzy, that’s all.” He leads you to the couch and brings a glass of water. You thank him and take the glass with shaking hands.

                “Are you sure about the party? I can cancel it if you’d like.” No. you need this more than ever now.

                “Nah, I’m okay. Nothing stops a Strider.” You get up from the couch and go back to setting your equipment up.

 

* * *

 

                John’s house is full of people you know and some you don’t, but they don’t matter. Nothing matters. Your sick beats are blasting, people are dancing, you are drunk and everything is wonderful. That’s when you spot a mop of dark hair among the drunken dancers. You put on a playlist and go talk to him.

                “Heeey, hot stuff.” Your voice sounds a little slurry, but you can’t bring yourself to care at the moment.

                “Dave? Are you drunk?”

                “Maybe. Maybe not. ” You poke his chest with your index finger. “You decide.”

                “Dave, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be around other humans in this state. You can end up doing something you’ll regret.” Why was he worried about him? There was nothing to worry about.

                “I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much, mister.” Someone bumps on you and you lean on Karkat for support.

                “No, you’re definitely not fine. Fuck this, I’m taking you home.” He grabs you by the hand and leads you towards the front door.

                Once outside you trip over your feet and nearly fall. Karkat’s strong hands prevent you from kissing the ground.

                “There’s no way you’ll get home one piece like this.” And next thing you know you’re in Karkat’s arms, way above the ground. The feel of the wind in your face is refreshing and the sound of his wings lulls you into the dreamland.

 

* * *

 

                You wake up the next morning with a massive migraine. You try to remember how you managed to get back home, when flashes of last night come to your mind. You remember drinking the living shit out of you because you didn’t want to think about _him_. You remember the crowd dancing to your sick beats. You remember a mop of dark hair among that crowd. You remember… nothing else.

                You groan because of the bright sunlight and take the painkillers someone had left on your night table.

                “Are you feeling better now?” The voice startles you and you fall off the bed.

                “Karkat?” You ask, still trying to free yourself from the mess of tangles sheets.

                “Who else, fucktard? I brought you home last night, but I doubt you can remember, such was your level of drunkenness.”

                “Yeah, I don’t remember that… Did you take my car or we came back walking?” You were genuinely curious about this.

                “I can’t drive and you were too drunk to even walk. We flew here.”

                “…What?”

                “You see these?” He shows you his wings. “They’re meant to fly, if you’re stupid and can’t figure it out by yourself. I took you and I flew here. Nothing unusual.”

                “Well, flying is pretty unusual to me…. Anyway, how did your Hell stuff go?” You ask, trying to make small talk and stop those shower thoughts from coming back to your mind.

                “It’s none of your business, but it went well.” He goes to the living room, as if he owned the house, and sits on the couch. “Come here, human, I still have questions for you.”

                You casually sit on the couch and prop your feet up on the coffee table. “Shoot ‘em.”

                “This one is more about human culture, not about you. What is it that you humans call ‘RomComs’?” You snicker a little bit. Why, among all the curious and interesting things about human culture, would he ask about chick-flicks?

                “They’re romantic movies, which mostly girls like to watch. I can show you if you want to.” You have no idea why a Strider would do something as uncool as watching a RomCom, but for some reason you can’t bring yourself to care.

                You put on the movie on and you both sit on the couch to watch. You fall asleep halfway through it and wake up at the final kissing scene. You glance at Karkat to see his eyes shining with red… tears? And his look was glued to the screen. A rather cute scene you admit, at least for a demon.

                 The movie ends and you feel really tired, despite the night’s sleep and that nap, so you head to your bedroom to try and get some quality sleep this time.

                “I’m getting back to bed. If you have more questions you can ask me later, okay?” Karkat barely pays attention to your words as he’s putting another movie on the DVD player.

                It would’ve been better if you’d stayed awake, though.


	5. Nightmare

                Despite your obvious denial, you went after the human. You found him where he said he would be, completely smashed. You brought him home and took care of him. So pathetic.

                Living with Dave was completely different of watching him from afar. He wasn’t the emotionless human you took him for. You’ve seen a hint of amusement in his eyes and, if it weren’t for those shades, you’d think he was looking at you fondly while you were watching the movie. He seemed to care about other humans too, specially that John friend of his.

                You are deep in thought, the current movie forgotten, when you hear a noise coming from Dave’s room. He seemed to be in pain. You’re worried and go check him out.

                Dave is on his bed, a mess of tangled sheets around them and he’s grunting in agony, his face a mask of horror. Most of his words are unintelligible, but you can clearly hear _“no”_. He repeats the word as if his life depended on it.

                You reach the conclusion he’s having a nightmare (no shit, Sherlock!) and shake him awake. His eyes shoot open, his breathing heavy and he looks at you, fear is still on his face and you decide you don’t like it, so you run your hands through his hair and bring him close to your chest.

                His breathing calms down and you can feel you shirt getting wet with tears and sweat. You start to push away, but he grabs your shirt and stops you.

                “No, please, don’t go.” You think the nightmare must have been really scary for him to be so vulnerable.

                You stay in that embrace for a few minutes more when you finally feel his breathing even out. You check to see if he’s really asleep and put him back in a lying position. You consider leaving him and going back to the living room, but something about the way he begged you to stay make you lay by his side instead.

                You figure you like his bed way better than the couch. Even better than your own bed, back in Hell. And it may or may not have to do with Dave’s presence by your side.

 

* * *

 

                You wake up with your limbs tangled with his. Your arms and legs are all around each other. You try to get up without awakening him, but you’re unsuccessful. The minute he looks at you he darts for his shades. When they’re safely positioned on his nose he looks at you again. His face now a mask void of emotion.

                “Leave.” He says. His voice is hoarse from all the screaming.

                “What?” You are really confused.

                He pushes your shoulders. “I said: leave!” He pushes a little more and both of you fall off the bed.

                “What the fuck is this about, Strider?” He’s getting on your nerves now. After all you did for him, that’s how he repays you?

                “I… I don’t know.” He sits on the floor, looking a little lost. “You shouldn’t have seen me like that last night. Striders are tough, we don’t cry, nothing can bring us down…” His voice starts wavering and you’re afraid he’ll start crying again, but he doesn’t. He takes a deep breath and get up. He offers you a hand, even though you don’t need one and you get up too.

                “Last night… you were having a nightmare, right?” You ask him, still worried.

                “Yeah… do we really need to talk about it now?”

                “Yes, it’s one of my questions. Now you have to answer it.” He looked really pissed off now, but you needed to know.

                “I fucking hate you right now… Alright, last Saturday, I went to John’s to throw a party and get drunk. I was drinking to forget that exactly five years ago my brother was killed in front of my very eyes. The nightmare was that memory hunting me again. There. Happy now?” You just stared at him for some time. He was fuming.

                When he turned to leave, you grabbed his arm. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” He protested and tried to free his arm.

                “Fuck, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t know it was something like that.”

                “Well, now you do. Let me go.”

                “No.” Your grip on his arm tightened. He came closer and punched you in the face with his free hand.

                “What the fuck was that for?!” He’s not weak, for a human.

                “That was for you being so nosy! Why does it have to be me? Why can’t you just go bother some other human and leave me the fuck alone? My life is already shitty enough as it is!”

                His words hurt way more than his punch. You let him go and disappear back to Hell.

 

* * *

 

                In the safety of your lair you think about your own shitty life. The way nothing ever seemed to pick your interest, the way everything was meaningless, until you saw him and started your observation. And now that he had said those things to you, the way they hurt, you couldn’t deny anymore.

                You were in love with the Dave human.

 


	6. Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again

                He vanished. You stay there for you don’t know how long, just staring at the now empty space where Karkat had been. You think about what you said and you immediately regret your harsh words. Sure, you were pissed off at him for stalking you and questioning you, but above all, for comforting you. Striders don’t need comforting. Your Bro was tough until the very end, never backing down, no matter what life threw in his face. You dishonor his memory by being such a baby. Every day since you can remember you try your best to be exactly like him.

                But deep down you know you’ll never be him. You are you, Dave Strider. The problem is you’ve spent so much time trying to be your Bro that you never cared to find out who you really was. You’re pathetic.

                And now you’re alone too, ‘cause you’ve managed to push away the only creature that had paid you any attention lately. Sure, there’s John, but since he met that Vriska chick she’s all he talks about. Your other friends are all too busy with their own lives. You ended up isolating from the world and didn’t even notice. No wonder you spend your weekends off at the bar.

                You kick the wall in frustration and it hurts your foot. Good. Physical pain hurt less than emotional pain. You sit on the edge of the bed and put your head in your hands. You think about your life, the way it used to be before he died and how it turned out after. When your Bro was alive he was your role model and suddenly you saw yourself standing alone in a big dangerous world without someone to look up to. Since then, all you’ve done was live your life the way he lived his. Your friends took this as a sign you were healed from the trauma and moved on with their lives. You, instead, got stuck in a life that wasn’t yours and now, you realize, you never wanted. You need to do something, you need to stop living for _him_ and start living for _yourself_.

                After a long time thinking you make a decision. You grab your keys and your cellphone and go to your car. You drive for some time until you reach your destination. You hadn’t been there in five years and it looked as depressing as you remembered.

                You make your way through a depressing-looking path lined with sculptured angels and flower vases and stop in front of a simple tombstone.

_BRO_

                Just that. No birth nor death year, no full name, no nothing.

                You sit on the ground in front of it and simply stare at those three letters, memories of happier times filled your mind and you could almost smile at them. Memories of that fateful afternoon crawled their way in and your face hardened once again. You wish, even though you know it’s stupid and pointless, that he was somehow here again… Suddenly you feel something cold and wet on your head. You look up and see it had started raining.

                You realize it’s getting late and with a heavy sigh you stand up. You take a step closer to the tombstone and remove your shades. You still wore the pointy ones he had given to you so long ago. You put them on the ground and the aviator shades John had given you for your 13th birthday take their place on your face.

                That’s it. Dave Strider will not live in the shadow of Dirk Strider anymore.

                There’s just one problem with that: Dave Strider is fucking broken and he can’t find himself. Not without help. But who could help you?

                ‘ _Karkat could.’_ A little voice in your head says.

                Regretting your earlier fight once more, you get back to your car and head home. The rain had become a storm and you’re glad you got to your apartment before it could get any worse. Not bothering with dinner, your plan is go straight to bed and, in the morning, try to figure out how to get Karkat to come back.

                Such plan wouldn’t be necessary, though, ‘cause when you open the door Karkat is standing in the living room, looking at you. Apparently he is as surprised as you are, if the look on his face is any indication of it.

                “Hey.” You say, tentatively, your hand scratching the back of your neck.

                As Karkat doesn’t say anything, you continue. “Look, man, I’m sorry I yelled at you and told you to fuck off and stuff.”

                He still hasn’t said anything. “I’m not really good at this apologizing shit, okay? I said I’m sorry, I don’t know what else to do.” His silence had started to get on your nerves. You take angry step towards him. “Just say something, damn it!” You raise your hands to shove him, but he catches your wrists.

                Your faces are inches apart; you can feel his breath on your face. You just stare at each other’s eyes for a long moment before he releases his hold and back off a little.

                Just now you realize Karkat is as drenched as you are. “Where have you been?”

                “In Hell, where else?” He answers, at last, and you can see he’s not remotely as angry as his tone indicated.

                “I didn’t know it rained in Hell.”

                “That’s because it doesn’t, dipshit!” Then he looks down at himself. “Fuck, I forgot about it.”

                You take a step closer, a smirk on your face. “So, where were you?”

                He turned away from you, facing the window. “I was definitely not at the cemetery watching your pathetic life-changing attitude, okay?!”  You had almost forgotten about that already. Just by seeing Karkat and feeling his presence there with you, everything felt just right. There was no sadness around him.

                You drop on the couch, remove your shades and cover your eyes with your arm. You don’t want to admit this to yourself, you really don’t, but you need him.

                You’re not sure you’ll be able to live without this demon around anymore.

 


	7. Decision

               After sometime brooding in your lair you decide you had a choice to make. You could come back to the human world, back to Dave, and lose your greatest power, or you could forget all about him and resume your shitty life, but you would still be able to keep your friends safe.

               You just hate how it’s all upon you. This is a burden you never wanted to carry. You never asked for this power.  Instead, you wish you were able to read minds, or control objects without touching them, but no, you had to be the only demon in Hell with the ability of showing the future to someone if they choose to continue on certain path… You think it’s pathetic, actually, but it’s the only power that can keep the Boss in line. And now you consider putting you friends’ life in danger, all because of a human. That’s why demons shouldn’t fall in love, they lose their powers. You’ll be even more useless without your ability.

                Your mind makes up pictures of your dead friends, of all the destruction the Boss would cause, the emptiness Hell would become… And then a flash of red cuts through these pictures. Shades and white-blond hair form in your mind, a smirk on the face responsible for these doubts. You imagine yourself by his side, helping him through tough nights when he had bad dreams, you two watching cheesy RomComs together…

                You make your decision. No one in Hell really cared about you, anyway, only your power was important. You wonder if Dave will be different, if he will like you for you.

                Deep down you know he will.

 

* * *

 

                You leave a note to Sollux, perhaps the only ‘friend’ you have, in your lair in case he comes looking for you. You take one last look at everything you’re leaving behind and with a resigned sigh you disappear in a cloud of smoke to never come back.

                You appear again in Dave’s apartment and call his name, but no one answers and everything is way too quiet. You remember the fight and think he may get himself in trouble, so you go after him.

                Since you’d started to stalk him, you’ve memorized his smell, so you could follow his steps easily. You track him down to the cemetery and find him in front of a grave, looking terribly sad and lost. You watch as he looks up at the sky and realize you’ll be soaked if you don’t leave soon, but you can’t bring yourself to move, even though the scene is obviously a personal moment that you shouldn’t be watching in the first place. Well, fuck ethics, you’re a demon, you can do whatever the hell you want.

                You realize just how important this moment is when Dave takes off his pointy shades and put them on the grave. They’re replaced by other shades, of course, but the previous ones seem to have a different emotional meaning.

                Dave is leaving, presumably to his apartment, since the rain is pouring harder, so you disappear and get there before he does.

                You stand in his living room, trying to think of what to do and what to say once Dave gets there, but your mind had gone completely blank. You hope he takes longer than usual to get home, because you need to figure out something. But the universe hates you, so you hear the door opening. You turn around to face his shaded eyes, surprise in his face usually expressionless.

                “Hey” He says, scratching the back of his neck. Your mind still refuses to form any intelligible though or sentence, so you keep quiet.

                He starts to apologize for the things he said and your silence bothers him, so he advances towards you in angry steps, his arms stretched in front of him in an attempt to shove you. But you catch his wrists before he can do it.

                Your faces are inches apart. You stare at his shaded eyes with as intensity as you feel him staring at your own red ones. You could just lower your lips and kiss him right there and then. But you can’t bring yourself to do it, so you back off.

                What a coward.

                Dave seems to notice something about you. “Where have you been?” He asks.

                “In Hell, where else?” You answer, trying your best to sound angry. You fail miserably, and he notices.

                “I didn’t know it rained in Hell.” You fucking hate this Mr. McSassypants attitude of him. _‘No, you don’t.’_ You tell this stupid voice in your head to shut the fuck up.

                “That’s because it doesn’t, dipshit!” And now you remember you were soaked to the bones because of the rain. “Fuck, I forgot about it.” You were too busy trying to figure out what to say once Dave got there that you forgot to dry yourself… and in the end forgot you were wet as well.

                He takes a step closer, wearing a ridiculously cute smirk on his face. “So, where were you?”

                “I was definitely not at the cemetery watching your pathetic life-changing attitude, okay?!” There, you said it. You just admitted how pathetic you are and how pathetic your actions are and how pathetic your whole existence is. You just want to dig a hole in the ground and disappear inside it forever.

                His smirk is gone, replaced with an unreadable expression. He drops on the couch, takes off his shades and covers his eyes with his arm. You just watch him for a few minutes, the silence isn’t awkward, but eventually you grow tired of it and wonder if he fell asleep.

                You take quiet steps closer to the couch and think if you should poke him or something, nut instead you find yourself removing the arm from his face and the shades from his hand. His eyes are open and you just look at them. Red in red. You feel like you could do this for hours, just stared at those deep pools of color.

                He realizes you’re still holding his arm, so he shifts and pulls you down on the couch by his side. He reaches for the remote control and turn on the TV and the DVD, the last RomCom you watched was still there. You spent the rest of the night watching movies together in a comfortable silence. You feel as if words were inappropriate for the moment. You eventually fell asleep, hand in hand.

                None of you had nightmares this time.

 


	8. Revelations

 

               You wake up to the feeling of something sharp digging in your skin. You open your eyes and see Karkat practically using you as his teddy bear; his clawed fingers were clutching your side and it hurt a little. You ignore the pain for a while in favor of looking at his face. He looked so calm, as if he’d never been angry or sad, as if nothing bad had ever, nor would ever, happen to him. You wish it was true. You study his face, admiring the grey tone of his skin, how his ears were pointy, how his disheveled dark hair fit him so perfectly, how his lips looked so soft and kissable… Then a sharp pain on your side brings you back to reality and you shift his hands careful to not wake him up.

                You fail miserably. Karkat jolts awake, falls from the couch and brings you down with him. You just stare at each other for a moment before you both crack up in laughter. You haven’t felt this free and happy in a long time…

                When Karkat recovers from the laughing fit he stands up and offers a hand to you. You take it, but he lingers in the touch a little longer than necessary. He looks as if he was about to say something, but reconsiders and walk away, into the kitchen.

                “Hey, fuckass, what do you want for breakfast?”

                You go after him, your shades still forgotten in the living room, and lean on the door frame. “I didn’t know demons could cook.”

                “I can’t cook, you brainless creature! I was going to suggest we go out and buy something, because your house seem to be void of any nutritious eatable stuff you fragile humans need so much.”

                “Really? I’m sure there’s still something here.” And you proceed to look into the cabinets until you find what you were looking for: Froot Loops. You wave the box in front of his eyes. “See? Told ya.”

                Karkat snatches the box from your hands. “It’s past its expiration date! See, here?” He shows you the date written on the box. “Damn, how did you manage to survive on your own for so long?”

                You shrug, snatch the box back and eat the cereal anyway. Karkat’s look of disgust is hilarious. “Thank whoever there is to thank that demons don’t need such thing as food to survive…” He retreats from the kitchen and you resume you breakfast.

                You look at the clock and realize you’re late for your shitty job at the local music store. You hate this job. All you do is roam around helping customers find what they’re looking for. It wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t have the most horrible taste in music you’ve ever seen! Really, they listen to shit. And you can’t even say anything about it. There was this time when a customer asked for the latest One Direction album and you just made a snarky comment in a low voice, but your boss was around and heard you. Let’s just say you’re not supposed to do something like that again… Lucky you have a way to get rid of all this pent up musical frustration; you work as a DJ for a club nearby on alternate weekends. Your Bro used to DJ on the weekends you were off and they wouldn’t let you take his place after he... well, but the money you made wasn’t enough to pay the rent by yourself, so you had to stick with a much less awesome job.

                You hurry up and finish your totally healthy breakfast and run to your room for a change of clothes. Karkat is nowhere to be seen, which is a good thing, ‘cause you can’t afford any more distractions. Not that he is a distraction. Not at all. He’s just your everyday demon who, apparently, won’t leave you alone in the near future.

                …You almost smile at that thought.

 

* * *

 

                When you arrive at the store you thank the heavens your boss isn’t there yet, just the cleaning lady.

                “Sup?” You acknowledge her presence, like the gentleman you are, and go to your default spot by the register.

                The time goes by as fast as a lazy snail. There weren’t too many customers today, just a few annoyingly loud teenage “beliebers”, an old man looking for some classic jazz and a little girl who had wandered alone and had lost sight of her mother. The girl seemed to enjoy the songs that were playing on the store at the time, the last Michael Jackson album. When her mom found her inside the store she thanked you for looking after her daughter (even though you had just let her wander around the store for a while); and, for restoring your faith in humanity by enjoying good music, you gave the girl a lollipop. You are surprisingly in a good mood today, despite the fact that this weekend had been the craziest and most non-sensical of your life.

                You job is still boring, though, so you thank the god of time when you see it’s nearing four o’clock and the end of your shift. You wait not so patiently for the girl that should take your place at the register. She likes her job way more than you do, and she spends most of the time playing the bass on the store. She claims it “gets the attention of the people passing by”, and she’s mostly right, that’s why she almost never gets in trouble with the boss. You look out the door in hope to see her round glasses and ridiculously long hair coming, but she’s nowhere to be seen. Jade is usually in time, so you shouldn’t wait for long.

                Sure enough, you hear the doorbell ring, signaling that someone had entered the store. You grab your things, namely car key and cellphone, ready to go home. When you turn around you don’t see you colleague. Instead you see Vriska standing there, and she looked pissed off.

                “Sup?” You try to start a conversation, but by the look on her face she wasn’t there to talk. You watch in awe – not fear, nope – as she transforms from human to her demon form. Karkat had already told you she was like him, but you didn’t think about how she could look like. Her skin turned grey with a small hint of blue, her horns were long and sharp and had different shapes and her gigantic wings had web-like patterns. Everything about her screamed ‘dangerous’. You remember what Karkat told you about her being aggressive towards other demons, so you believe your assumptions are correct. You recall him telling you she didn’t attack humans, though, so why was she there all fussed up like that?

                “Leave him.” She says.

                “What? Leave who?”

                “Don’t play dumb, human. You know who I’m talking about.” She steps closer and you take a cautious step back, but keep your territory.

                “Are you talking about John? ‘Cause if it is, don’t worry, we don’t even hang out so much anymore.” You try your hardest to think who she could be possibly talking about, and then it hits you. She’s talking about Karkat. “Wait, no. You’re talking about Karkat, ain’t you?”

                “Oh, so the human does have a functional brain. How clever.” She said on a mocking tone. You don’t like it one bit. No one mocks a Strider. “Yeah, he’s the one I’m talking about. I want you to leave him.”

                “Dude, we’re not even together. He just showed up to me last Friday and didn’t leave since then.” It’s the truth, after all.

                “Don’t you dare take me for a fool! I know what’s going on. He’s in love with you, I’ve seen the note he left in his lair before coming back to the human world. I can’t exactly stop him, but I won’t allow this relationship to go on and put us all in danger.” You could practically feel the aura of anger and threat that surrounded her. She was deadly serious about it.

                “What the hell do you mean? Karkat’s in _love_ with me? Where did you get that from? There’s no fucking relationship going on!” You are genuinely surprised at this revelation. Sure, you thought the demon actually cared about you, with all the flying you home when you were drunk and taking care of you and going after you on the cemetery even though you told him to fuck off, but you never considered such a possibility. You decide to not believe Vriska’s word until you have some proof from Karkat, but you can’t help but feel a little hopeful…

                Vriska seemed to back off a little… just a little. “There’s no relationship going on _yet_. When a demon falls for a human it’s because of a deep connection shared between them. You can’t escape this.” Her eyes lost focus for a moment. “One moment you’re having fun, turning the lives of humans in a living Hell, and the other you’ve lost your powers, all because your eyes caught sight of a human that shouldn’t be different from the others, but somehow they are…”

                “Wait, so demons have powers? And they lose them when they fall in love? That makes no sense…” She brings her focus back to you, an angry expression is back on her face.

                “Well, that’s what happens. And Karkat just happen to have the only power that’s been keeping us alive for so long. A lot of us have already lost our power because of your race. We don’t need any more losses. If _you_ don’t do something about it, mark my words, human, _I_ will.” And with that she power walks out of the store, her body changing back to human form.

                You stand there dumbfounded and it takes a few moments for you to realize that Jade is snapping her fingers in front of you.

                “Earth to Dave. Is there anyone there?” She jokes, with a smile on her face. “Sorry I was a bit late, Bec made a mess at home and I had to clean everything up.”

                “It’s okay.” You grab your previously forgotten phone and keys and head to the door. “Bye.” You don’t even wait to hear her answer; such is your will to get home.

                The traffic didn’t help at all, you were stuck for twenty minutes longer than usual, but you finally get to your apartment. When you open the door you hope to see Karkat standing in your living room, as usual, but your disappointment almost shows on your face when you see he isn’t there.

                “Hey, Karkat, you here?” You call, expecting to hear his voice from the kitchen, or at least the bedroom. You hear a noise and keep quiet for a moment, trying to figure out what it is. After the encounter with the demon girl you think you should be a little more careful.

                The noise is running water and you follow it to the source: your bathroom. You enter as quietly as possible, your curiosity taking the best of you.

                “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Ah, there he is, then. You snicker while watching Karkat fumble with a towel, trying to cover himself up.

                “Demons take showers too? Man, you’re full of surprises, ain’t you?” Your snicker turns into a smirk when you catch sight of his perfectly built abdomen. Karkat blushes and shoves you out of the bathroom, a little rougher than you thought necessary.

                “Shut the fuck up, Strider! Get out of here before I decide to rip that pretty little skin off your stupid face!” He shuts the door on your face.

                You smirk again. “So, he thinks my skin is pretty, huh?” You decide to test Vriska’s theory. For ironic reasons, of course. It’s not like you’re hopeful or anything.

 


	9. Laughter

               You’re having the most perfect dream ever, something that had never happened to you, but the images start to vanish from your mind when your arm is moved. You wake up startled and end up falling and dragging along whatever was in up there with you.

                You open your eyes to realize it wasn’t a “what”, but a “who”. It was Dave you were clutching like a teddy bear moments ago. You feel a little embarrassed, but the look in his face is hilarious. He must have thought your expression was funny too, because you both crack up in laughter at the same time.

                You recover from the laughing fit first and stand up. This morning seemed to be way too carefree and happy to be true, you think. You offer your hand to help Dave up and don’t let go after. It just felt so right to be holding his hand, and you were about to tell him this, or something like this, but you hold your tongue. It would be too awkward. You let go of his hand, unwillingly, and go into the kitchen to try to find something for the human to eat. You even consider cooking for him, but this option is ruled out once you see there are practically no cooking ingredients, nor any eatable food. Dave realizes you obvious intention of making breakfast, so you lie, saying you can’t cook and complain about the lack of organic feeding substances. He manages to salvage a box of cereal from a forgotten corner of a cabinet and waves it in front of you, as if he’d just won a competition, the show off. You snatch the box from his hands and look for the expiration date. The cereal is way past it and you tell him so. But stubborn as he is, he decides to eat it anyway.

                You leave him to his devices, figuring he’d have to get to work soon, and go the living room. You notice his shades on the coffee table and wish he’d never used them when talking to you. He seemed to have forgotten them this morning and you secretly hope it’s because he doesn’t feel the need to hide himself from you anymore. You sit on the couch, rest your elbows on your knees and your head on your hands. You try not to think about what could be going on in Hell right now, if the Boss was still under control, if the other demons would manage to survive once he loses it again… You need to get out, clear your head a little. You don’t bother to let Dave know you’re leaving, or else you might change your mind, and he would be leaving soon too.

                You change your appearance to a human form and head for the nearby park. Maybe if you bother a few people you’ll feel better. You drop a little boy’s ice cream on his shirt and scare away the birds an old lady was feeding before you spot a very well-known figure. She wasn’t alone and you know the other person well enough to be sure it was Vriska there. You consider going talk to her and get some news, and ponder whether it would be good for your guilty conscience, or if it would worsen things; but her eyes find you before you can make a decision. She probably caught your smell in the air, that bitch.

                She changes her path and drags – what’s his name again? – along. You don’t see any escape routes and brace yourself for whatever there was to come. You could never be sure whether she was going to be friendly or aggressive. You didn’t even know if she already heard the news of your decision. When she approaches you notice the lack of a raging fire in her eyes, so you assume it’s a friendly encounter.

                She is stopped on her way, though, by none other than Sollux, who’d apparently forgotten demons shouldn’t appear out of thin air in front of humans. He caused a small turbulence because of it. This was good, since, by the look in Vriska’s face, he was telling her about the note you left. Her eyes shot up to you once again, this time filled with rage. In fear of what she might do, especially in front of the humans, you abscond the fuck out of there.

                You appear on Dave’s apartment, since only Sollux know where it is, and by the looks of things he didn’t seem willing to talk to you any time soon. You just hope he hadn’t revealed the location for the others. Looking at the clock you see it’s still early, lunch time to humans, and it would be a few more hours until Dave got home and you miss him already. Fuck, you’re acting like a sappy love-struck teenage girl. Pathetic. But still, you go to his bedroom and lay on his bed, hugging his pillow. His scent is something you can’t quite define, it smells manly, but soft too. You lose track of time and even doze off a little. Looking at the clock again you decide there’s time for a shower (even though demons don’t actually take showers it was one more thing about the human culture that you’ve secretly appreciated for a long time…).

                The sound of running water soothes your ears; the warm liquid has a calming effect on you, making you forget about the encounter at the park. You don’t hear the front door opening, but the bathroom door makes a small noise and you shoot your head in that direction to see Dave standing there, shades sadly back on his face, practically devouring you with his eyes.

                “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” You shout at him, grabbing the nearest towel and trying to cover yourself up.

                “Demons take showers too? Man, you’re full of surprises, ain’t you?” The fucker dares to _snicker_ at you. You blush and curse your candy-red mutant blood for showing up so easely. Dave probably caught sight of that, so you shove him out a little more forceful than necessary.

                “Shut the fuck up, Strider! Get out of here before I decide to rip that pretty little skin off your stupid face!” You shut the door in his face and leans on it. You know he’s smirking when he mumbles in a low voice:

                “So, he thinks my skin is pretty, huh?”                    

                You wish you could just die of embarrassment right there and then.

                You realize that, after a shower, your clothes look pretty filthy, so you decide to throw the rest of your dignity out the window and open the door. Sure enough, Dave is still there with that infuriating smirk.

                “… Can I borrow some clothes?” You ask, looking at the floor.

                “What?” He sounds surprised. Anger builds inside you and your eyes shoot up at him.

                “Are you fucking deaf? I said: Can you borrow me some clothes, nooksucker?!”

                “Whoa, okay dude, calm your tits.” He raises his hands in a defensive position. “I’ll go get ‘em. Just keep those sharp things to yourself.” He says, pointing at your claws. You had raised them a little aggressively and didn’t even notice. You should be more careful from now on; the last thing you want is to hurt the human you’re in love with.

                You wait by the bathroom door and when Dave returns with the clothes you shut the door again, locking it this time. You are a couple inches taller than him and a little more built, so his clothes hug your body nicely, showing off your attributes. You don’t like it one bit, but it will have to do. There’s a problem with the pants, though: the lack of a hole to fit your tail. Dave doesn’t seem to have noticed it yet, as it was rather short and stayed under your overcoat, but now there’s no way to hide it… You wonder what his reaction will be and hope it doesn’t freak him out much. With your claws, you rip a hole just large enough to fit your tail.

                You check yourself on the mirror and quite like what you see. Trying to fix your hair is useless, so you just run a hand through them and let them dry naturally. You’re distracted a moment by the smell of the clothes you’re currently wearing. ‘ _He smells so fucking good’_. A knock on the door brings you back to reality.

                “Hey, Karkat, you still alive, man?” His playful tone is back on his voice. You open the door and walk towards the living room.

                “I’m out, I’m out. You’re a shitty host, you know that?”

                “It’s not like I invited you here in the first pla- WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THAT?!” Looks like someone found out you have a tail…

                You wiggle it a little. “It’s my tail, bonebulge, every demon has one. Got any problem with that?” You fake an angry tone and he sees right through it.

                “No problem, dude. It’s just… kinda awesome, ya know?” He looks quite impressed by the discovery. “Can I touch it?” He asks, reaching for your tail.

                “What?! No, you can’t, fuckass! It’s a sensitive spot!” You shouldn’t have said that. He’s taking off his shades and for the first time you wish he’d put them back on, because the look on his face it actually frightening. He’s looking at you as if you were his prey or something. He darts in your direction and you flee. He pursues you through the whole apartment and the sound of laughter, from both of you, is all you can hear as you try to find refuge in his bedroom. Your attempt to close the door is futile, as he puts his foot on the opening. You let go of it and start walking backwards, just as he walks towards you. Forgetting about the bed, you fall on top of it when you reach the edge. You prop yourself up on your elbows just to see Dave looming over you. This whole situation is ridiculous, you’re way more powerful than he is, and yet you can’t bring yourself to care.

                Dave doesn’t stop at the edge of the bed. He puts one knee at each side of your thighs, straddling you, and leans down close enough for you to share a breath, his hands beside your head, holding him up.

                “Looks like I won.” His red eyes are intense and you find yourself trapped inside them. “Now I want my prize.” You barely notice his movements and, before you can wrap your mind around the situation, you feel his lips on yours.     

                You hadn’t even realized you had shut your eyes, but you open them, just to see his own red ones closed. His lips never stopped moving so after the moment of shock passed you close your eyes once again and respond with yours in a shameless needy way.

                Your reaction seemed to wake something inside of Dave, because he kisses you more fiercely, his tongue tracing a path along your lower lip, begging for entrance, which you happily grant. Your tongues battle with each other for dominance, you being the loser this time. As you let him explore your mouth you swing one hand around his neck, pulling him even closer, while the other darts to his back, feeling his muscles tense under his shirt every time you touch them. He’s doing some exploring on his own, ‘cause you feel his hand on your chest, over your – his – shirt.

                His lips leave yours to give attention to your neck, tracing a path from your jawline to the hollow of your neck, where he leaves an open-mouthed kiss. He goes all the way back, using his teeth this time, and finds your mouth again. Then you feel something hard and push him away a little.

                “Stop.”

                “But, why? Things were just getting good.” He whines. He fucking whines. So adorable… But you can’t allow this to happen. Not now, anyway.

                “We need to stop before things get out of control.” You try to explain, but he interrupts you.

                “It could be fun to get out of control, don’t you think?” He says, his lips going back to your neck. You push him again, a little more firmly this time.

                “Can you shut the fuck up and let me speak?” He quiets down, but still doesn’t leave your lap. You pull him off, onto the bed beside you and sit up. “No, it wouldn’t be fun to get out of control. Not now. There are certain things that need to be taken care of, pertaining to the fact of me being a demon and you a human.” He looks a little confused about it, and a little put off.

                “Care to explain?” He crosses his arms and there’s a little pout on his face.

                “I can’t tell you much more now. As time goes by, though, and if some things actually happen, it’ll be safe for you to know.” He stands up and, without a word, leaves, and locks himself in the bathroom. The sound of running water reaches your ears and, with a resigned sigh, you get up too and go to the living room. You need a movie to relax a little and think about everything that happened today.

               

 


	10. Feelings

                Your name is Dave Strider and, apparently you’re a terrible host, even though you hadn’t invited anyone and most certainly not a demon over. Said demon just borrowed your clothes and – _‘damn!’_ – does he look good in them. You never thought that under that ridiculously large overcoat of his would be a very well built body. When he turns around, though, you notice something you hadn’t seen before. There’s something that looks like a tail – _‘but it couldn’t actually_ be _one, could it?’_ – hanging out of a hole in your pants. The damage done to your clothing seems small compared to your discovery and your reaction most certainly shouldn’t be like that. You thank your shades to at least lessen the damage done to your cool façade.

                He wiggles the thing in front of you and you feel the urge to touch it. You politely ask him and he denies your request, revealing a little bit of information that you find very useful. You hadn’t given up on your mission to touch his tail, though, so your dart after him and he flees you. Laughter is all you can hear as you both go on this childish tag game around your apartment. He goes to the bedroom and tries to close the door, but you put a foot on the opening to stop him. He walks backwards and falls onto the bed and, feeling more audacious than usual, you go after him and straddle his lap.

                “Looks like I won.” You say. Your voice sounds husky and low. “Now I want my prize.” A voice in your head asks you if it’s actually a good idea to do what you’re about to do, but you shut it out. In a swift movement you lower yourself, locking your lips with Karkat’s. He is unresponsive for a moment, but soon his lips are moving too and you feel like you had died and went to heaven. The creature who was now kissing you had to be an angel, not a demon.

                You deepen the kiss, trying to get more reactions out of him and you smirk a little when you feel his hands on your body. You decide to explore too, using your hands and mouth, and you feel yourself getting hard against him. But just when you thought things would get _really_ good Karkat pushes you away.

                “Stop.” He says with a serious face.

                “But, why? Things were just getting good.” You actually whine, but don’t really care at the moment.

                “We need to stop before things get out of control.” You wonder if he’s sick or something, ‘cause he is surely out of his mind.

                “It could be fun to get out of control, don’t you think?” You go back to caressing his neck with your lips, but he pushes you away again.

                “Can you shut the fuck up and let me speak?” You quiet down at his tone and he pulls you onto the bed. He sits up and starts again, in a serious tone. “No, it wouldn’t be fun to get out of control. Not now. There are certain things that need to be taken care of, pertaining to the fact of me being a demon and you a human.”

                You try to wrap your mind around what he said, but it just doesn’t make sense. “Care to explain?” You say, crossing your arms, not liking one bit that you had to stop for real.

                “I can’t tell you much more now. As time goes by, though, and if some things actually happen, it’ll be safe for you to know.”

                Both emotionally and sexually frustrated, you get up and go to the bathroom for a shower. You don’t bother to say anything to Karkat.

                Once under the running water you take care of the little problem Karkat had caused, and then take a proper shower. You wrap a towel around your hips and go to your bedroom for a change of clothes, hoping that Karkat wasn’t there anymore, or else it would be awkward as fuck. Thankfully the room was empty and, by the sounds coming from the living room, the demon was there watching a movie.

                You take your time dressing up, thinking about what happened today, since the moment you woke up and saw Karkat there, using you as his teddy bear and how happy you felt. You remember thinking about him all day, wondering what he would be doing and if he was thinking about you too. You think about how childish and free you felt running after him playfully, and just how hot it was what happened next. You feel your heart beating faster just by thinking about these things and a realization hits you: you’re in love with the demon Karkat.

                Running a hand though your hair you try to cope with your enlightenment. _‘I can’t be in love with him. No, it’s too soon.’_ You try to deny you feelings, instead repeating mentally that you’re just broken and he happens to be around and it’s helpful. Yeah, that’s more like it.

                You know you’re trying to lie to yourself when you go to the living room and look at him, so absorbed by the RomCom on the TV; his eyes were shining as the main couple admitted their love for each other and embraced, sharing a loving kiss afterwards. A tear rolls down his face and you, giving up on the lie but still not accepting your feelings, sit beside him and wipe away the wet path of the tear with your thumb. You just stay like that, looking at each other; your thumb caressing his cheek softly.

                “Why can’t you tell me?” You don’t bother clarifying the subject of your question, but Karkat obviously know what you’re talking about. He seems a little reluctant, but gives in.

                “I’m scared.” He looks down, away from you.

                “Scared of what?” You can’t think of anything that could make a demon afraid. Karkat is powerful and strong, and he has wings and he is just plain awesome! How could something – anything! – scare him?

                “Of what might, no, what _will_ happen if I lose my powers.” You raise an eyebrow

                “What powers?” You ask and he sighs, resigned.

                 “Every demon has a ‘special power’, something that’s unique. Some of us can read minds, others can move objects without touching them, awesome stuff like that. I, on the other side, can show the future for someone should they continue on certain path. It’s pretty lame, I know, but it’s the only thing that’s keeping me and the other demons alive for now.”

                “Dude, you think you power is lame? I don’t know what your definition of awesome is, but showing the future sure classifies as it in the Strider dictionary.” You reply, actually admired by this revelation. Karkat seemed to be getting more and more perfect with everything he says and does. But you’re not in love with him. Totally not.

                He huffs, dismissing what you said and turn his attention back to the TV. The movie is over and the credits are rolling. Realizing he won’t say anything else, and having nothing better to do, you have an idea.

                “Hey, Karkles, wanna go out?” You ask nonchalantly, still looking at the screen.

                “First: what the fuck kind of nickname is that?! Second: are you asking me out, like, on a date?”

                You’re feeling a little bolder today, after Vriska’s theory of Karkat being in love with you had been kind of confirmed, so you just decide to go for it. “It’s just a nickname, Karcrab, I know you love it. And yeah, it’s a date. Why not, anyway?” You shrug as the coolkid you are.

                After a moment of silence he accepts. “Fine. But we’d better go somewhere your friend John is not familiar with, and not very close either.” Those are some weird conditions.

                “May I ask why?” You’re actually curious about it.

                “Because I can’t be seen by Vriska or any other demon that might be running around with humans right now.”  You open your mouth to ask him about it but he stops you with a finger on your lips. “No, I will not explain it any further. Let’s go.” He takes you by the hand and pulls you with him to the door. You casually intertwine your fingers and it feels good to see how they fit perfectly together.

 

* * *

 

                You’ve been driving for nearly an hour through a small road. Karkat had asked you where you were going, but you refused to tell him, so he’s been pouting half-heartedly ever since. You lightly bang your head to the rhythm of the sick beats blasting from the speakers. Karkat seems to be enjoying them as well.

                “You like it?” You ask him, not taking your eyes off the road.

                “They’re decent enough for shitty human music.”

                “What is music in Hell like, then?”

                “We don’t have such thing in Hell.” He says, sounding a little disappointed.

                “Man, that sucks. I couldn’t live without music. It’s like the fuel that keeps me going, ya know?” You can’t imagine living in a place where there’s not music. No wonder demons come to the human world… “This, right now, is actually one of my own mixes.”

                You thought that Karkat would be impressed by your statement, but instead he just shrugs. “I know. Your useless human mind seems to forget that I’ve stalked you for weeks before introducing myself.” His voice wasn’t loud as usual and he looked on the verge of drifting off to the dreamland.

                “Yeah, totally forgot about that…” You wait for a reply, a snarky comment, or anything like that, but all you get is silence. The demon is sleeping peacefully. You smile a little at the sight, and get your eyes back in the road. You weren’t far from the place you chose for the date and you get there in no time.

                You caress Karkat’s cheek and hair to wake him up. All you get is a still asleep demon nuzzling your hand. You, then, peck his cheek until he opens his eyes. It’s not like you haven’t kissed yet, so you don’t think it’ll be too awkward. And it’s really not. Karkat wakes up with a small smile on his lips and you wonder how bad it would be if you could see him like that every day.

                You decide it wouldn’t be bad at all, quite the opposite, actually.

“Morning, Sleepy Beauty. We’re here.” You get out of the car and wait for him a few feet away.

                He looks at his surroundings and doesn’t seem so impressed. “Where the fuck are we?”

                “Very far from the city and its lights.” You answer casually.

                “And what the hell are we going to do here, fuckass? Isn’t this supposed to be a date?”

                “It is a date. Come here.” You offer your hand and he takes it. You lead him to a small hill nearby and lay on the ground, facing the sky. He copies you and after a moment of silence he speaks once again.

                “So, what are we supposed to do now, bonebulge?”

                “We’re doing it.” You answer with a playful smirk.

                “Would it kill you to be just a _little_ more specific here? ‘Cause if it doesn’t, maybe I will.” You decide to answer for real this time.

                “Look at the stars. That’s what we’re doing.” You point at the sky, to a specific pattern. “See, right there?”

                “There?” He points at a different place, so you take his hand and guide it to the right spot.

                “No, there. It’s the Sagittarius constellation. It’s my zodiac sign.” He hums in acknowledge. “What’s yours? Do demons even have zodiac signs?”

                “Yeah, we do. Mine is cancer… Can you show me?”

                You point his hand to the right direction. “It’s right there.”

                “It’s beautiful.” He says with a dreamy look on his face.

                “Yeah, you are.” You say, looking at him. His blush is the cutest thing you’ve ever seen.

                You keep looking at the constellations and discovering new patterns on the stars for some time. It’s getting cold and you didn’t bring a jacket, so you scoot closer to the warmth radiating from the demon next to you.

                He seems to notice your approach. “Are you cold?”

                “Not really, no…” He raises and eyebrow in suspicion. “Yeah, I am.” You admit, defeated.

                “You humans are so pathetic. Demons don’t feel cold so easily, since our body temperature is higher than yours.” He opens his arm in a silent invitation and you use his shoulder as a pillow while he hugs you to keep you warm. “There, better?” You nod against the fabric of his – your – shirt.

                You stay like that for a very long time, just looking at the stars and, more constantly than not, at each other, until none of you can take the proximity any more. You look up at him at the same time he looks down at you and you both lean in for a kiss, as if you did this all the time. It felt so natural, so perfect, that you ask yourself why you didn’t do this every day.

                You share the sweetest kiss you’ve ever had. There was no lust this time, no rush, just tenderness and… love. You gave up on denying your feelings. This was way too _right_ to let go


	11. Matespritship

               Karkat Vantas is officially the happiest demon to ever walk on the face of Earth. Since that night under the stars you and Dave had been inseparable. You weren’t exactly boyfriends or anything official like that, but it wasn’t necessary to label your relationship. You definitely were more than friends, and that was enough.

                The past four days were complete bliss. Dave proved to be way more caring than he let on, and the fucker loved to cuddle, but he would never admit it. You love how he wakes you up with soft kisses, that soon turn into passionate ones and you have to stop before things get out of hand. Dave seems a little frustrated by that, but he doesn’t say anything. His shades are gone for most of the time, which you think is a huge demonstration of trust coming from him. You wish you could tell him more about your power and all the things you said you couldn’t talk about…

                Today is a Friday and, since Dave didn’t work on the club last weekend, he would go there today and tomorrow. Before you met him face to face it was quite enjoyable to watch him up on the DJ booth, getting all those hungry looks from both girls and boys. But now you’re not so sure you’ll like it…

                “I’ll come with you.” You decide. Dave barely looks up from the plate of mac and cheese he was digging in.

                “Come where?” He asks with his mouth full.          

                “To the club, fuckass! Where else?!” He swallows before actually looking at you; a knowing smirk is already on his face.

                “Why?”

                You look away and try to come up with something that won’t give away you’re jealous of him. You fail miserably. “Because I… Because I’m bored. Yeah, bored.” You nod once to confirm your words.

                He raises an eyebrow and crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Bored, huh?”

                “Yeah.” You’re still not looking at him.

                “Come on Karkitty, why don’t you just admit you don’t want the hotties ogling at the awesome Strider here?”

                “S-shut up! It’s not like that!” You stutter. So fucking embarrassing. “I just don’t want to be sitting here all night long doing nothing.” You cross your arms and most definitely not pout.

                He gets up from the chair and stands by your side. His hand on your chin guides your face up, but you keep your eyes away.

                “Look at me.” He asks sweetly. You lift your gaze, reluctant, to meet those beautiful pools of red. “You don’t have to be afraid of losing me, ya know?” His thumb is rubbing reassuring circles on your cheek. “Besides, I’m way too awesome to have a simple human as a boyfriend, don’t you think?” He winks and takes his plate, unfinished, to put in the sink. “Come on, Karkles, or I’ll be late.”

                “I already told you to stop with these fucking ridiculous pet names!” You hear his laughter coming from the living room and go after him.

                During the drive to the club you think about what he said about you being boyfriends. He never said anything about making it official, you never said you loved each other, not even that you liked each other… It was nothing like your movies, but still, it was perfect. He was perfect. You look at him driving, banging his head to the sound of the music. So beautiful. You reach a hand to touch his hair and instead of pushing your hand away he actually nuzzles against it. He looks at you for a second to shoot a rare and sweet smile and brings his eyes back to the road. When you finally get there Dave puts his shades back on and guides you both inside.

                You stay with him up there for the first hours, shooting menacing glares to whoever dared to even glance Dave’s way, but grow bored eventually.

                You poke the albino’s shoulder to get his attention. “Do you want a drink?” He nods. “What do you want, then? Or do you expect me to guess, dipshit?”

                “Whatever you get for yourself is fine.”  His attention goes back to the turning tables and you get on your way to the bar.

                Before you can get there, though, you feel someone tugging at the sleeve of your overcoat. You turn around and turn the palest shade of white you’ve ever seen. With a murderous look on her face you see Vriska standing there, John is nowhere to be seen, but you assume he is close by too. You try to play innocent.

                “Hey, Vriska! Long time no see, huh?”

                “No, not really. Actually, I remember seeing you on Monday, you know, at the park?”

                “No, it couldn’t be me. I wasn’t anywhere near the park on Monday.” She knows you’re lying through your teeth.

                She grabs you by the collar and drags you out of the club and to a nearby dusky alley. You pray to everyone listening that there aren’t any humans around, because you won’t be able to fight her in a human-like form. And, by the looks of things, maybe not even in your full demon form either.

                She pushes you against the wall. “Now you listen to me, your little shit. I will not allow you to put us all in danger because of a stupid romance, you hear me?”

                Anger boils inside of you at those words. “Oh, really?! Do you really think you have the right to threaten me when you are in the SAME FUCKING SITUATION?!” You shove her away and she begins to transform; her horns showing up and her wings spreading menacingly. You open your own wings, threatening her too.

                “Don’t you DARE bring John into this! You know there was nothing we could do! When the Matespritship is sealed there’s no turning back!” Her tone is getting exasperated and the furious flapping of her wings is agitating the wind around you.

                “Why the fuck did you seal it, then?” She was going to say something, but you interrupt her. “I’ll tell you why: it’s because you DON’T GIVE A FUCK! Not you, not Kanaya, not anyone else! It was always I who had to care! I had to stay away, wondering if I would ever find my Matesprit and hoping it would be a demon, because I fucking CARED about all of you!” Your angry steps toward her make the demon walk backwards until her back reached the opposite wall. “But guess what? I don’t give a flying fuck anymore. You could all explode for all I care. I finally found my Matesprit and there’s nothing you or anyone else can do to make me leave him. Understood?!”

                If looks could kill you would be long gone by now, but Vriska gives up on the fight and disappear with one last warning glance your way. Thankfully, and luckily, a physical fight was avoided.

                You wait outside for some time, waiting for Dave to come out so you can go home. You don’t want to stay here, but don’t want to leave him there alone either, and you definitely don’t want to go inside anymore. You see John coming out a short time later. He recognizes you and asks about Vriska. You don’t know if he knows about her true nature yet, so you just tell him she left and pay him no more mind.

                Dave comes out a couple hours later, clearly searching for you.

                “There you are! You never came back with those drinks and vanished from the club and I couldn’t go look for you and…” You shut his with a rather forceful kiss, making him moan, needy. His hands lock around your neck, pulling you closer and deepening the kiss. The need to breathe hits you both, though, and you have to back off a bit. The look in his eyes was like nothing you’ve seen before and you decided you wouldn’t hold back anymore.

                “Come on.” You take him by the waist. “Hold on and try not to fall, is that clear, bonebulge?” The confused look on his face is replaced by a shocked one when he looks at your spreading wings and realizes what’s about to happen.

                “Dude, come on, is this really necessary? I mean, the car is right there and everything.”

                “Afraid of heights, are we now? You didn’t complain the last time.” You mock him a bit, just for the fun of it.

                “Last time I was fucking wasted! And I’m not afraid! I’m just… uncomfortable.” You laugh at this sorry excuse of a human being for a moment before flapping your wings and pushing you both onto the air.

                “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, dipshit. Now, seriously, hold on.” You make your way back to his apartment. He keeps his eyes closed all the time.

                When you finally get there, through the living room window, Dave is visibly more at ease and sighs in relief. You don’t even let him catch his breath, though, as you hungrily claim his lips again, more passionately this time.

                Between kisses and touches you both manage to stumble to the bedroom, where you push him on the bed, straddling him and pinning his hands on top of his head, successfully trapping him underneath you. You bring up your free hand and rip his shirt with your claw, teasingly slowly. He’ll probably give you a hard time about it later, but now he’s way too absorbed in the situation to say anything.

                You meet his lips with yours one more time, now tracing a path of open-mouthed kisses from his jaw to his collarbone and back, nipping and licking afterwards, marking him as yours.

                In a particularly teasing mood, you travel slowly through his chest, exploring the exposed skin with your hand and lips. You let go of his hands in favor of caressing his stomach, feeling the defined muscles tense under your touch, while pinching and twisting a nipple with the other. He’s trying to hold back the sounds, so you replace your hand with your mouth, sucking and swirling it with your tongue. He grinds against you and you can feel how hard he is. You smirk against his skin, pleased to know you were the one to make him this bothered.

                “K-Karkat, please.” He begs you, needy. You travel even slower, your lips trailing all the way from his chest to his abdomen, giving special attention to his navel, dipping your tongue inside in a teasing manner. You finally get to the hem of his jeans and unbutton them, taking them off all the way along with his boxers in a swift and fast movement.

                 You take your time to admire the creature in front of you. His skin was glimmering with a little sweat, the moonlight kissing all the right spots, surrounding him with a mystic glow.

                He props himself up on his elbows and speaks in a husky tone. “Like what you see, Karkitty?”

                “Shut up.”

                “Make me.” Challenge accepted. You dive in for his lips once again. His hands are tugging at the hem of your shirt, pulling it off. You don’t even remember when or where you left your overcoat and it didn’t matter right now, because his hands are traveling up and down your back, his short nails digging in your skin, barely bruising it. His hard cock is brushing against your stomachs and you drown in the moans that come from him.

                You leave his mouth once more, tracing down his chest and a hand reaching for his dick and pumping it slowly, before you take the tip in your mouth. Dave growls in pleasure, tangling one hand in your hair. You let your tongue travel all the way from the base to the slit, licking the pre-cum, before taking him all the way in. You’re lucky demons don’t have gag reflex, ‘cause the albino isn’t exactly small. While you’re bobbing your head up and down his shaft, the hand in your hair finds your horns and curls around them. You moan, the horns being a very sensitive spot, and just when Dave was about to come you let go of him.

                “Hey! That’s not fair, dude!” He complains. You smirk, mischievously.

                “Who said it was supposed to be fair?” You say, unbuttoning your pants and tugging them off. You leave your boxers on for now, a little afraid of Dave’s reaction when he sees what’s under them.

                “Whoa! Did you pants just move?” He asks, surprised.

                “I have to warn you, Dave, that demons aren’t anatomically identical to humans.”

                “Ugh, whatever, just get back here already.” He says, pulling you by your boxers for a passionate kiss. His hands travel down your chest and into your pants. He jolts, startled, when he feels something wet curling around his fingers, but doesn’t take his hand back.

                “I’m not sure I want to know what this is.” He says, between kisses. You’re about to answer when one finger finds your nook and your mind goes completely blank. “Wait, demons have both?”

                “Yeah, we do, now move your damn finger or so help me, you won’t live to tell the tale.” You say, getting frustrated with the lack of friction that had already been denied for long enough. He takes your boxers all the way off and set two fingers to work, in and out, of your nook, while your neglected bulge pumps him at the same rhythm.

                You both come hard and embarrassingly fast, dropping on the bed side by side. You’re all sticky and messy, but you couldn’t care less. The last thing you remember before falling asleep is a kiss on your hair and Dave mumbling something you couldn’t quite catch.

 


	12. Love

                You’ve decided you quite enjoy having the demon around. You’re still an emotional and psychological wreck, but being with Karkat has put things into perspective. Life wasn’t so bad after all… Sure, your life at the moment wasn’t what people call ‘normal’, but it was good enough for you, and for Karkat too. You don’t know where the courage to ask him out came from, but you felt like you should do it. You’d barely known him and yet there was something about how his eyes were shining that made you feel it was right.

                The rest of the week was pretty average, with you waking up next to him, his eyes being the first thing you saw, going to work with a goodbye kiss and coming home to a welcome one, watching movies together, or just talking about everything and nothing. Well, almost everything, since he wouldn’t tell you the reason why you couldn’t have sex. It’s not like you wanted to rush things, but it got kind of frustrating sometimes.

 

                Tonight you were going to work at the club and Karkat insisted he wanted to come along. He was so totally jealous, even though he wouldn’t admit it. You walked to him and reassured he wouldn’t lose you. Then you realized you sounded way too cheesy for a Strider and joked a little. He scolded you because of the pet name, but you know he loves it.

 

* * *

 

                At work things were as uneventful as they could be. Just your every-day club life. That is, until Karkat went for a drink and never came back. You vaguely remind someone, apparently a girl, talking to him. You feel a pang of jealousy, but dismiss it. You trust Karkat will never cheat on you, so you focus on the music again. You realize how long had passed when John comes to talk to you. He waves at you from the dance floor and you call him up.

                “Hey, Dave!” He says, not as cheerful as always. Odd.

                “’Sup, Egbert? Still messing around with that chick?”

                “Yes, Dave, and I intent to keep that way for a very long time, thank you very much.” His expression becomes serious. “Actually, Dave, there’s something I need to tell you.”

                “Shoot it.”

                “It’s about Karkat. He’s not who you think he is. He’s dangerous, Dave. You should stay away from him.”

                Anger boils inside of you, but you show nothing. “And who told you that?”

                “Vriska did. She told me she’s known Karkat since forever and he’s not a good person to be around.”

                “And you believe everything your little girlfriend tells you?”

                He seems to get a little angry too. “Yes, Dave, I do believe her. You didn’t even tell me about this guy. Why would you keep it a secret? I saw him taking you home from the party on Saturday and I saw him here today. You are dating him and told me nothing. I was supposed to be your best friend!”

                “Well, that kinda changed when all you could talk about was ‘Vriska this’ and ‘Vriska that’ and ‘Vriska is so perfect’ and ‘I’m gonna marry Vriska someday!’” You raise your voice to an irritating high pitch tone to piss him off some more. You’ve had this frustration with your friendship bottled up for long enough. “And now you prefer to listen to this girl instead of the guy who you said was your best friend. I’m done with it. I’m big enough to make my own choices on who I date and I don’t need your approval.”

                John was on the verge of tears by now. You didn’t want to hurt him that much, but you don’t regret what you said. “I see… Well then, goodbye, Dave. Just please don’t come looking for me when that guy breaks your heart, or worse.” And he leaves. You want to sit on a corner and cry, but you keep a cool façade on, after all, you still had work to do tonight.

                A couple hours later you can go home, the club is closing, so you dart to the door, looking for Karkat, silently praying he was okay. You see him leaning against the wall and practically run to him, babbling all the way.

                “There you are! You never came back with those drinks and vanished from the club and I couldn’t go look for you and…” He shuts you with a kiss and your mind goes blank immediately.

                He then flies you home and you keep your eyes shut all the time. Not because you’re afraid of heights, no, it was something else completely. When you get home he doesn’t even let you catch your breath before he captures your lips, more hungrily than ever.

                You end up in the bedroom and it’s nothing different from the other times you did this. That is, until he rips your shirt off and starts teasing you. You really hope he won’t leave you hanging this time, you’re not sure you could take it. So you grind against him to show just how he’s making you feel. You even beg like a whore, but you don’t care right now. All you want is for Karkat to touch you. He finishes undressing you and takes a moment to admire his catch. You sensually make fun of his actions, calling him back to bed. You think he’s way too dressed so you take off his shirt and do some exploring. Next thing you know he’s giving you a fucking blowjob. The best you’ve ever received, mind you. But he doesn’t let you finish. You whine, but stop once you realize he’s taking his pants off too. You see something actually moving in there and get a little apprehensive, but your lust-clouded brain dismisses any further thoughts, your body in need of whatever he had in there. You find out it was a motherfucking tentacle! And he had both the men and women stuff! You proceed to have the most strange and awesome sex experience ever and after you both fall on the bed, curling up on each other. Karkat is almost instantly asleep and you kiss his hair affectionately.

 

                “What, no sandwich?” You whisper, but he’s already gone to the dreamland. You chuckle at the cuteness of his face and fall asleep yourself.

 

* * *

 

                You wake up to the blinding light of the morning sun. Cursing, you reach for the curtains to pull them close so the room would be in a cozy shadow of red, courtesy of the fabric’s color. You listen to the sound of running water and suddenly realize you’re all sticky and in desperate need of a shower. The bathroom door is unlocked and you don’t hesitate to come in. Karkat is humming softly and you take a moment to admire him before joining in under the spray of hot water. Since he had his eyes closed and the bathroom was all foggy, the demon didn’t see nor sense your approach.

                “What the fuck?!” He curses, turning around startled.

                “Calm down, it’s just me.”

                “Don’t tell me to just calm down you idiot! I thought someone had found me here!” He looked genuinely worried.

                “What are you talking about?” He covers his mouth with a hand, as if he’d said something he shouldn’t.

                “Nothing. It was nothing.” He turns around and reaches for your shampoo. You take the bottle of his hands, pouring some of the product in your hands and reaching for his hair.

                “Let me.” You massage his hair softly, sometimes dangerously close to his horns. Karkat’s eyes are closed and you hear a smooth noise that sounds vaguely like a cat purring, but you don’t have a cat and the windows are closed and… wait.

                “Is that you?” You ask nonchalantly.

                “Is that me what?” He asks back, his eyelids nearly closed in pleasure.

                “That purring sound.” His eyes shoot open and you see a faint blush coloring his cheeks.

                “N-No.” He turns his face away, embarrassed. You give him a knowing look. “Okay, maybe it’s me. Any problems with that, fucktard?”

                “Nope, not at all. It’s actually really cute.” You say, rinsing his head and applying hair conditioner. Yes, you use hair conditioner. Striders need their hair smooth and perfect.

                “Shut the fuck up. I’m not cute.” Instead of arguing back, you take hold of the base of his horns, massaging them. The purring turns into a moan the demon can barely hold in. You notice his tail swinging behind him and decide that now would be a great time to test just how sensitive it is. You lean in for a kiss; sweet at first, but turning passionate as hands start to roam and tongues battle for dominance. You reach out for his tail and tease him with ghost touches around it before taking hold of the base. Immediately you feel his bulge curl around your hardening cock and his lips, which were traveling around your neck, come back full force to your mouth, drowning you in a sea of sensations you wish you never had to emerge from.

                You caress his tail as his bulge jerks both of you off. The sounds you’re making are undignified, but you couldn’t care less. You both come at the same time and lean on each other, catching your breath.

                “I told you not to touch it, fuckass.” Karkat says, a little breathless.

                “If that’s what happens, then I’m afraid your tail will receive much more physical attention from now on.” He punches you playfully on the shoulder.

                “Shut up… Now get out of here and let me finish what I was doing before you decided to interrupt.”

 

                “You’re no fun.” You pout jokingly, but get out anyway or else none of you would get to take a proper shower.

 

* * *

 

                When Karkat finally gets out of the bathroom and you enter the shower, you take a moment to think. He sometimes slips things he claims he shouldn’t have said, but you’re in a relationship now, or at least it seems so. Why does he have to hide that information, then? Shouldn’t you be able to tell each other important stuff and trust each other?

                Looking back you see you haven’t opened up to him much either. Sure, he’s known you for quite some time before introducing himself, but that doesn’t mean he truly knows the real you. You decide that, if you want him to open up, then you’ll have to open up first. You know it will be painful, but it’s necessary.

                You step out of the shower and put some clothes on. Since it’s a Saturday, you don’t have to work at the store, just at the club later, which gives you plenty of time to have a heart to heart talk with your not-exactly-official-but-feels-like-it boyfriend. You strongly believe you will regret this, but your mind is set and you refuse to go back.

                You spot Karkat in the kitchen, munching on a bag of Doritos. By the guilty look on his face when he spotted you, he knew just how much you worshipped the snack. He tried to hide the bag on his back, but you snatch it out of his hands, take one and eat it, all with a fake anger.

                “Mine.” You growl. He growls back and you step forward, locking him in a suffocating embrace. “Mine too.”

                He growls again and crawls out of your grasp, blushing. You take his hand and lead him to the living room. “Come on, we need to talk.” He follows without a word, which is very odd.

                You sit on the couch and pull him next to you. “Okay, so, before we discuss our relationship status, there are some things you should know. I have never been in a stable relationship, I still haven’t gotten over my brother’s death, I just lost my life-long best friend to a stupid demon chick and I don’t have any big goals in life.” You’re surprised with how easy it was to open up to him. You never told these things to anyone and it felt really good to finally let it all out. “Right now you’re the only thing keeping me sane.”

                Karkat is speechless for a few moments and when he speaks his tone is tender, unlike his trademark loud way of speaking. “I knew it. No one is that tough. Your seemingly expressionless was one of the things that caught my attention, actually. I just didn’t know it would be this bad…”

                “Ok, enough with my shitty life. Your turn.”

                “My turn to do what?” He knew exactly what, but was trying to avoid talking about it.

                “Talk about those things you said you couldn’t tell me, maybe? Come on, if we’re gonna do this, we need to trust each other, and that means no secrets. I told you what you’re getting, now I want to know what I’m getting into here.”

                He sighs, resigned. “Fine. You said we needed to talk before discussing our relationship status, right?” You nod. “Well, you see, our status doesn’t need to be discussed, because it’s something bigger than our own decisions…”

                “What?” That’s kind of confusing.

                “Demons may have many lovers through their lives, but there’s one creature that is bound to them by the Universe, their Matesprit. The demon and his Matesprit share a bond that neither of them fully understands, but it feels like the most natural thing in the world. It feels just right, you know?”

                Now that rings a bell... “Could this Mate-whatever be a human?”

                He knows you’re getting it when he nods. “Yes, a demon can have a human as Matesprit. Even though your human brain is a useless piece of shit, you’re smart enough to have figured out by now that you are my Matesprit and, by extension, I’m yours.”

                “Dude, that’s so gay.” You say, jokingly, but still think it’s actually very sweet.

               “Shut up and let me finish.” You make a zipping gesture on your lips and he rolls his eyes. “Remember when I told you that demons have powers?”

               “Yup, and you think your power is lame, but it’s actually very cool.” Really, showing the future is cool, no matter what anyone else says.

               “Yeah, well, when a demon has another demon as Matesprit, their powers get stronger. But when the Matesprit is a human, the demon loses their power.”

               “Did you lose yours already?”

               “No, not yet. The Matespritship needs to be sealed in order for it to happen.”

               “And that’s why you didn’t want things to get too hot when we made out?” He nods. “Why the change, then?”

               “Someone came to threaten me in case I sealed it. Someone who had sealed a Matespritship with a human herself, not giving a shit about the consequences of her own actions.”

               This was getting really interesting. “You also said your power is the only thing keeping the demons alive, right?”

               He nods. “Yeah, it is. When the Boss gets out of control I can bring him back to sanity, therefore preventing him from killing everyone in Hell. But those guys never really cared about me, they just wanted me there to save their asses. I don’t give a shit anymore; I deserve to be happy too.”

               You let that information sink, before speaking again. “On the shower, you said you thought someone had found you here. Are you in some kinda danger or something?”

               “I’m not sure, but it may be a possibility. The other demons don’t want me to seal our Matespritship, so it’s only logical for me to think some of them might try and take me away from you… Or even hurt you.” You gulp, a little scared. Karkat seems to notice and he puts a comforting hand on your shoulder. “Don’t worry, if they want to lay a finger on you, they’ll have to kill me first.”

               “Stop this killing nonsense, okay?! No one’s gonna die here!” You kind of panic a little, but soon you feel arms surrounding you, making you feel more secure than ever.

               You feel ghost kisses on your hair, on your forehead, your closed eyelids, your cheeks, the tip of your nose, your jaw, until they finally reach your mouth. You and Karkat share a slow and deep kiss, full of meaning and trust, that tasted like a promise. A promise that you two would be together, even if the whole world was opposed to it.

               You embrace tenderly and Karkat lifts you both up. Not leaving each other’s arms you find your way to the bedroom. With locked lips and roaming hands you lay on the bed with Karkat on top of you. Not a word is said when you undress each other slowly taking the time to worship the body in front of you, treating it with ultimate care and tenderness.

               It barely hurts when you feel his tentacles inside of you, reaching places you never thought were possible. All you can feel is the love emanating from him, surrounding you both, expressing with your bodies just how important you are. Words weren’t enough to say it all.

                Still, on each other’s arms, under the red light of the sunset, you say what you never thought you would. “I love you, Karkat.”

                He nuzzles closer to you. “I love you too, Dave.”

                You fall asleep, wanting this moment to last forever.


	13. Fight

                Waking up in a tangle of limbs, curled up against Dave’s warm body is definitely a good way to start the day. But soon you feel all sticky and gross from the night before, so you get up quietly, careful to not wake him up, and go to the shower.

                Dave decides to join you and you end up not taking a shower at all. You make him leave, then. When you get out, decently clean, you decide to do some exploring in the kitchen and find a bag of chips, planning on eating some and putting it back where it was before Dave sees it. Your plan fails when he walks into you in the middle of your little crime.

                He says he wants to talk about some things and you feel a little apprehensive. You really don’t want to reveal any information that might make him reject you, especially after the things he said. You want to be there to support and love him. But still you say everything about the Matespritship and the consequences of it. Surprisingly enough, he doesn’t walk away; instead you end up sealing your Matespritship in the most wonderful way possible.

 

 

 

* * *

               

                You wake up to the sound of Dave’s alarm informing you, rather noisily, that if he didn’t get out of that bed soon, he’d be late for work. You hear him grumble next to you and give him space to get up. He doesn’t bother covering himself up as he goes to the bathroom, and you certainly don’t mind the show. Lying alone in bed you dare to get your hopes up about your life. You never really thought much about the future – _‘Ha! Dave would be so proud of the irony in this.’_ – because you were always scared of what would or would not happen. But now, with Dave, you let yourself imagine building a life with him, here in the human world. You even think about the possibility of someday adopting a human child. You would want a girl and he would want a boy and you would argue over it until probably getting both. You chuckle at the scenes playing on your head.

                When Dave comes out of the shower you go in for a quick wash. You’ll go to work with him again because, even though you hope the demons will leave you alone, you can’t be entirely sure. Especially after that less-than-pleasant encounter with Vriska yesterday. You dress up in a hurry, but still manage to look good, according to Dave.

                You get to the club and don’t leave his side for one moment. It got kind of boring, but at least the music was good. The night went on and an eternity later it was time for you to go home. At least there weren’t any unpleasant surprises.

                Dave’s hands and lips are all over you the moment you get out of the car. You somehow manage to climb up the stairs to his apartment, unlock the door and close it behind you. After a moment, though, you smell something that shouldn’t be there at all. Sulfur. So you push Dave away and open your eyes. You don’t turn on the lights, but your night vision is more than enough to find the hidden creature in the dark living room.

“What’s wrong?” Dave asks, feeling the sudden change in your actions.

                “Vriska.” You growl low and dangerously.

                She steps out of the shadows and into the stream of moonlight coming through the window and directs her voice to Dave “I warned you, human. I told you to leave him. I told to you to stop this.” With each phrase the demon takes a step closer. You stand protectively in front of Dave, while he searches for the light switch.

                “Fuck off, Vriska.” You warn her, watching as she summons her sword. You don’t waste time and summon your weapon too, which is a short staff with a sickle attached on each tip. You realize you’re shivering a little when Dave puts a hand on your shoulder, trying to calm you down.

                “You! I warned you too!” She said, looking at you, lifting her sword. “The Boss had gone insane again and you weren’t there to calm him down. We had to gather up everybody to stop him, and we barely managed to do it, but he had already killed someone by then.” You could see the hurt and the rage in her eyes, matching her tone. “He killed Terezi!” Her sword was wavering dangerously close to your body. “And it was YOUR FAULT!” With that she charges and you block her sword with your sickle. You reach behind and push Dave away. He stumbles a little and run to his bedroom, supposedly locking himself inside. It wouldn’t be enough to hold Vriska, in case she went after him, but you hoped you could focus the fight upon yourself.

                You retaliate the attack, but she is fast and blocks your assault. With your wings fully spread in a threatening way, there’s not much space in the small living room of the apartment for you to move, blocking and attacking, so half of the room was already destroyed by your strife. Planning to drag the fight away from Dave as much as possible, you turn around and flap your wings on her face, to leave her momentarily disoriented. You flee through the window and to the roof of the building. At this point you don’t care whether the humans would see you or not. All that matters is keeping Dave safe.

                You land and she follows close. You circle around a little before she charges full force on you. You block her again with the sickle in your left hand and with your right you manage to scratch her face, drawing cerulean blue blood from the left side. She lifts her hand to cover up the wound, lowering her guard. You switch the sickle to your right hand and manage to open a cut on her side from which more blood started flowing. You didn’t think the wound was so deep, but Vriska dropped her sword to try and stop the blood with both hands. She falls to the ground, getting weaker and weaker as blue pooled around her. You keep your guard up, never trusting the demon bitch. For all you know she could be faking the weakness.

                “How can you be so stupid?” She tries to talk, a little breathless, and you can see tears staining her face, leaving marks on the dirty and sweaty grey skin. “You and the human may try to hide, but you’ll never be free. We won’t be able to hold him next time and after killing us all he’ll come to you.” She lifts her head to meet your eyes, her gaze cold and merciless. “You will die, Karkat Vantas.”

                She disappears before you can say anything and you stand there for a moment, recovering from the battle, when you hear a loud noise of something breaking coming from the apartment. You fly back in as fast as you can. You could just appear inside, but you didn’t know what to expect, so you decide to take the safest route. You enter through the living room window and the damage of the previous fight is visible – the couch was ripped in many places, the coffee table was broken in half and the TV was on the floor, completely destroyed – , but there was no one there and the bedroom door was opened. You rush there, already thinking the worse, and barge into the room with the sickle ready in your hand. Standing close to the window was Equius, a demon who considered himself the Boss’ personal guard and servant. He was holding Dave by the collar of his shirt.

                “Let him go.” You warn the demon.

                “The Boss needs to be controlled. This human is the reason why he can’t be controlled anymore. He has to pay and so do you.” His grip on Dave’s shirt tightens and the human winces a little.

                “What the fuck are you even doing here, anyway?” You say, thinking of some way to get Dave out of that situation.

                “The Boss sent me. He wants you both dead.” He steps closer to the window, and by the looks of things he was planning on throwing the human through it.

                “Let him go, then, and fight me like a real demon, instead of playing stupid games with the human. You can finish him off after killing me.” You risk, hoping he would accept the challenge.

                The strong demon thinks for a moment before letting Dave go. The human stumbles a little, before trying to get close to you. “Dave, no. Stay there.” You warn him and he nods in acknowledgement.

                Equius steps closer, raising his fists to fight you bare handed. You lead him to the living room, blocking every punch with your sickle. His hands have cuts on them but he seems to ignore the pain. Or maybe he is incapable of feeling it, anyway. You are growing more and more tired and the other demon manages to break your guard and hit you in the face and chest a few times. It is getting harder to breath, but you have to keep going, you have to protect Dave.

                The image of your Matesprit getting killed by the hands of Equius fills you up with rage. You decide you won’t let it happen, no matter the cost. With a renewed stamina and a strong determination, you launch yourself forward with such force that you push him back, reaching the window, and you both fall through it. It’s a mess of fists and kicks in the air, but you manage to stay on top and the sidewalk is getting close fast, so you lift your sickle and bring it down on Equius’ neck the moment you hit the ground. You watch his head roll away a little, no longer attached to his body, and the blue blood coloring the street, your hands, your clothes and your face.You’re in shock for what you did. You had never killed a demon before. But still, you don’t regret it. It had to be done, for Dave.

                As the demon’s body starts to turn into ashes, you put your weapon away and appear in Dave’s bedroom. The small shriek you hear is proof that he’s more than a little shaken with all that happened. You approach him slowly, and he pulls you down in a bear hug.

                “I thought you were gonna die there.” He whispers, trying to hold back tears and failing miserably.

                “I couldn’t let them hurt you.” You hug him even closer. “But we can’t stay here now, it’s not safe anymore.”

                “And where are we supposed to go?” You remember something from when you were stalking him.

                “I know you have a small house in the country. I think it will be safe to hide there, at least for a while. I don’t think the other demons know of its existence.”

                He winces. “Do we really have to go there? Ain’t there no other option?”

                You don’t know why he’s so reluctant, but you don’t know what else to do. “No, there’s no other option.” He sighs, resigned, and you pull him to his feet. “Come on, grab your things, we have to go now.”

                You wait patiently while he stuffs some clothes in a backpack and comes back to you. “Now put your arms around my neck and your legs around my waist. You have to hold tight. It will be a long ride and we can’t stop all the time, okay?”

                He nods, but there’s a confused expression on his face. “Why can’t we just appear there?”

                “Because your human body wouldn’t make it. Your organism is different from mine. It’s not designed for this kind of thing.”

                “Fuck. I really hate flying.” He curses, but hugs you the way you told him to. You take off immediately, not even looking back, but afraid to look forward.

                The future had never seemed so dark and cruel.


	14. Memories

                One moment you are snogging your boyfriend and on the other he is protecting you from a crazy demon with a sword. What the actual fuck is happening? They’re fighting in the living room and you’re here, locked up in the bedroom, like a scared little puppy, hiding. You know there’s nothing you can do, that even though your ability with a sword is good there’s no way you can stand up to a creature like that.

                By the sounds, you imagine they’re getting far from the apartment and you open the door a little to see what’s happening. Apparently you’re alone now. You go to the living room and realize Karkat and Vriska are still fighting, but on the roof. Suddenly everything is quiet and you hope that your boyfriend is still alive up there.

                You’re startled by the noise of something breaking behind you and turn around to this huge creature standing on your broken coffee table. His skin is grey, his wings are enormous and one of his horns is broken in half. You assume he is a demon and, judging by the last visitor from Hell, you don’t think he means good business. You try to silently go back to your hiding spot, but the creature catches you before you take a step.

                “Not so fast, human.” He grabs you by the collar of your shirt and you try to wriggle out of his iron fist.

                “Let me go!” But it’s useless to fight.

                He leads you back to the bedroom and goes to the window. Karkat arrives in the room and you notice how tired he looks, but still has a threatening look.

                “Let him go.” You never thought the cute demon, who purred like a kitty, could sound this scary.

                “The Boss needs to be controlled. This human is the reason why he can’t be controlled anymore. He has to pay and so do you.” The tall demon answers, tightening his grip on your shirt.

                “What the fuck are you even doing here, anyway?” Karkat was probably trying to buy some time.

                “The Boss sent me. He wants you both dead.” He steps closer to the window, dragging you along, and it seems he’ll throw you out like a trash bag.

                “Let him go, then, and fight me like a real demon, instead of playing stupid games with the human. You can finish him off after killing me.” You mind goes blank. _‘No, Karkat. This is stupid. Get the fuck out of here.’_ You think, but you voice has abandoned you.

                The other guy apparently accepted the challenge, because he let you go. You immediately try to get to your boyfriend, but he stops you. “Dave, no. Stay there.”  You nod and don’t move.

                You reluctantly watch the fight from there. Karkat is getting beaten badly and even though he managed to slice the other’s skin in some points he still kept going. It looked like your boyfriend would lose the battle, but suddenly his eyes fill up with rage and something else you can’t quite define, and charges on his opponent, making them both fall out the window. You stay frozen in the same place, not daring to breathe, nor think about what was happening out there.

                To your relief, a few moments later, Karkat comes into the bedroom with blue blood all over him. You hug him as close as humanly possible, wishing to never let go.

                “I thought you were gonna die there.” You whisper, trying to hold back the tears that were pooling on the corner of your eyes. You fail to do it and they roll freely down your cheeks and on the demon’s shirt.

                “I couldn’t let them hurt you. But we can’t stay here now, it’s not safe anymore.” He says, still hugging you.

                “And where are we supposed to go?”

                “I know you have a small house in the country. I think it will be safe to hide there, at least for a while. I don’t think the other demons know of its existence.”

                You flinch. That is a place you swore you’d never go back. Not after that afternoon. You just couldn’t bring yourself to do it.

                “Do we really have to go there? Ain’t there no other option?”

                “No, there’s no other option.” That’s what you feared. “Come on, grab your things, we have to go now.” He says and you stuff some clothes in a backpack, not looking at what you were picking up, trying not to remember the things that happened five years ago.

                Karkat instructs you to hold him, ‘cause you would have to fly there. He explains that your human body couldn’t take the other demon transportation method.

 

                _‘This is a nightmare and I’m gonna wake up soon.’_

 

* * *

               

                Unfortunately no, this is not a nightmare and you’re not going to wake up soon.

                You’ve been flying all night, with just a few stops here and there for Karkat to recover. Demons are way stronger than humans, but he had just fought two of his own kind. He wasn’t exactly fully rested and ready for this kind of exercise.

                You get to the small house by the middle of the morning, judging by the sun, high in the sky. You spot the two story building, not as beautiful as it had been once. The garden was taken by wild plants. The house wasn’t exactly abandoned, because you knew the neighbor went there from time to time to clean up and stuff. You had told him to leave it be, but he insisted on doing it. “It’s for your brother.” He’d said, and you didn’t have the guts to argue.

                You and Karkat enter the house cautiously, as if there was someone there to ambush you. Everything is quiet and safe, though, and you proceed to throw your bag on the floor next to the dresser in your old bedroom and fall on the bed. You hadn’t spared a look in the general direction of your Bro’s old bedroom and you intended to keep it that way.

 

                You feel your boyfriend behind to you, crawling under the covers and wrapping his arms around you in a sweet and protective gesture. You snuggle up to him and fall asleep almost instantly; the lack of sleep finally catching up after a night of adrenaline.

 

* * *

               

                _It’s a Saturday and you’re playing videogames on your Bro’s console while he’s away in the improvised training field, practicing some new moves and blows. It had started to rain an hour ago and you vaguely think about leaving the game and getting your bother back home. He took really good care of you since your parents died four years ago, when you were twelve. You admired him for taking the responsibility on his shoulders, being only seventeen. But when it came to care for himself, he was a total disaster._

_The game has gotten your attention for a while longer, but you realize the rain has started to pour harder, so you decide to go look for your brother. You grab an old umbrella sitting on the corner and get out of the house; the strong wind greeting you with a cold blow to the face. You silently curse Bro for making you do this, but open the umbrella and go._

_That piece of shit is useless. The wind bent it a few minutes after you left, so now you’re walking under the rain, getting cold and drenched. You’re getting close to the training field, but your Bro doesn’t seem to be there, ‘cause you don’t see anyone moving. You call for him, but get no answer. You think it’s odd and step closer. You see his training equipment spread all around the field, but no sight of his beloved katana. You see footsteps in the mud, leading to a nearby cliff and your mind jumps to the worst conclusion. You run there, careful not to fall, look down and see the weapon on a small platform not so far below. But still no sight of you brother. You think he may have dropped something on the river and went along it trying to get it back, so you follow the path of the water, which also leads back to the house._

_After a few minutes of walking under the pouring rain you see a shape on the edge of the river. You pick up the pace, a smile of relief adorning your face when you see it’s your Bro… but the smile disappears as soon as it came when you get closer and realize there’s something very wrong._

_Your brother doesn’t seem to be moving. You call him but get no answer. You run to him, stumbling in the muddy ground and stopping next to him. You fall to the ground by his side, noticing the red path coming from his head. He was face down and you turn him back up, shaking him, trying to wake him up. You don’t realize the tears streaming down your face, mixed with the heavy rain, nor the screams, until you feel your throat burning. You hug your Bro’s body, begging him to come back to you, then cursing him for leaving you, then begging him to come back again._

_You don’t know how long you stood there and what happened afterwards is a blurry memory. You remember someone telling you he had fallen into the river, hit his head on the rocks and drowned. He was probably trying to get his katana back._

_You remember lying to the justice guys, showing them your fake ID, telling them you were eighteen, instead of sixteen. You would never accept going to some shitty foster home. You had to take care of yourself now._

_You remember crashing at John’s for some time until you got a job and going back to the apartment. You remember your shitty job at the music store and the awesome DJ one too._

_You remember Karkat Vantas, the demon. But suddenly he’s dead, surrounded by others of his kind. All of them are laughing at you, getting closer and closer and closer until everything is black…_

 

* * *

 

                You jolt awake in a pool of sweat. You feel tears streaming down your face and your heart beating fast. Karkat is at your side with his arms around you. You pull him close and sob on his shoulder. This is why you didn’t want to come to this stupid place. He rubs soothing circles on your back and whispers comforting words on your ears, effectively calming you down after some time.

                You notice the room is a beautiful shade of orange. “Orange was his favorite color.” You chuckle, humorless.

                “I don’t think you want to talk about the nightmare you had, but if you do, I’m here, okay?” He says, pushing you back to look into your eyes. All you can see is the love in that look, so you lean in to plant a chaste kiss on his lips.

                “I know.” You smile weakly. “It’s just… This is where he died and I was the one who found him and coming here brought back memories and shit.”

                He just hugs you tight and you stay in that warm embrace for quite some time before he speaks again. “Come on, we have to get you something to eat. You human body hasn’t received any proper nourishment since yesterday.” And he pulls you up from the bed.

                You thank the neighbor for the working shower as you let the warm water fall on your back while Karkat massages your aching muscles. You leave the bathroom feeling a little more relaxed and pick some random clothes from you backpack. You walk to the nearby town to get something to eat. You find a small Italian restaurant and set for some pasta.

                During the dinner you make plans for the next day, thinking about food and money and stuff like that. You pay with your credit card and go home, hand in hand with your boyfriend, when an idea pops in your head.

                “Hey, Karbaby, come on.” You say cheerfully to the demon beside you.

                “What the fuck is that pet name?” He complains half-heartily but follows you all the same.

                You drag him to a seemingly barren field, with nothing but a tree in the middle. “This is where my Bro and I would play when we were young… Well, I would play and he would watch me. And this is where he used to train me when I got old enough to hold a sword…” Your voice trails off a little, but you recover soon. “This is the most perfect place to look at the stars.” You say, looking at him.

                He lets you drag him near the tree and lies down next to you. The sky is clear and beautiful and all you can think is how lucky you are to have Karkat by your side, loving you. Somehow you feel this night is very important and you want to make it unforgettable.

                You sit up and lean down over you boyfriend with a smirk on your lips. “Hey, Karkitty, have I already told you I love you today?” You speak low with you face inches apart from his.

                “No, not today. You’re really a lousy Matesprit.” He leans in for a kiss, but you back away, just letting the tip of your lips touch. “So…?” He says, a little annoyed that you pulled back.

                “So what?”

                “Aren’t you going to say it?” He asks, sounding a little disappointed.

                “Nah.” You shrug. The look of disbelief on his face is priceless. “I’m gonna show you.”

                With that you proceed to plant soft kisses along his neck, tracing a path up to his jaw, purposely avoiding his lips when you trail up to the tip of his nose, his closed eyelids and his forehead. He relaxes underneath you and brings a hand to you hair, tangling his claws in you blond locks. He guides you to his lips and you kiss softly and slowly until the need for air is more than you can take.

                You slowly unbutton his overcoat, he’s not wearing a shirt underneath, and plant kisses along his chest. You notice his breath shake a little when you give attention to his nipples with your lips, teeth and hands. He tries to pull you up for a kiss when you reach the hem of his pants, but you don’t let him. Instead you proceed to remove his pants. You keep his underwear on for now, watching the bulge inside come to life and wiggle, trying to break free of its confinement. You look up at Karkat when you lick the tentacles over the fabric of his boxers. His face is the sexiest and most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen. You remove his underwear and notice his tail swaying between his legs. You take a hold of it as you go down on him. You have absolutely no idea how to give a blowjob on a tentacle, but they take care of it for you, moving in, out and around your mouth. With one hand you pump his tail and with the other you find his nook, dripping wet already. You set your fingers to work, drowning in the mix of purring and moaning noises your boyfriend is making. He comes and you lick yourself clean. He goes for your pants and you push his hands away.

                “I’m okay, baby, there’s no need for that.” You dismiss him, but he insists.

                “Do you think you’re the only one allowed to show your love?” And he proceeds to take off your pants and boxers.

                Your boner stands up proud and he admires it for a second, before taking it in his hand while leaning in for a kiss. His other hand scratches the back of your neck, leaving small red lines. You know he’s doing it on purpose, he’s marking you as his, and you feel all warm inside when you realize it.

                “I love y-…” The words disappear and your mind goes blank as you feel warm and wet lips around your cock. Karkat doesn’t waste time and take all of you into his mouth, until you feel the back of his throat. He bobs his head up and down and you effectively lose the ability to breathe. You can only think there’s no better sensation in the world. That is, until he replaces his mouth with his nook, impaling himself on you. You don’t sense the world around you anymore, it’s just you and Karkat, floating in complete bliss.

                You hug each other and come together, moaning sweet ‘I love you’s on each other’s ears.

                Feeling too tired to get up, you fall asleep there, under the tree on that barren field in the middle of nowhere, wishing the time could stop and you could be like this forever.

                If you only knew this would be your last night together…


	15. Death

                You manage to get out of the apartment and come to the house in the country. It’s just a couple hours far from the city, but you hope it’ll be enough to keep you both safe for a while. You’re exhausted from the fights and flying all the way here, but at least Dave is alright. There doesn’t seem to be a scratch on him and you feel a little better. You both crawl onto the bed and fall asleep; you curled up behind him protectively.

                You wake up to Dave tossing and turning and mumbling incoherent things on his sleep. He’s sweating so much his T-shirt is drenched and his face is contorted in agony. You shake him awake and he jolts up in a scream. You pull him to your arms, hugging him closely and let him cry on your shoulder, while you try to calm him down.

                “Orange was his favorite color.” He chuckles humorlessly.

                “I don’t think you want to talk about the nightmare you had, but if you do, I’m here, okay?” You say, tentatively.

                He comes closer and plants a chaste kiss on your lips. “I know.” He smiles weakly. “It’s just… This is where he died and I was the one who found him and coming here brought back memories and shit.”

                You think this isn’t a burden he should have to care and if you could you would make all the pain go away and bring his brother back. But you can’t. You’ve never felt so useless. So, you do the only thing you can think of at the moment, you hug him tight, trying to somehow absorb his pain to yourself. “Come on, we have to get you something to eat. You human body hasn’t received any proper nourishment since yesterday.” You have to make him eat something, his face is a sick pale tone and you can feel he is weak from lack of food.

                Before you leave you take a shower together, with you massaging his back and shoulders, trying to relieve him from all the tension of the previous night. Apparently your plan works, because he looks a little better when you walk to the restaurant in the nearby town.

                After the dinner he takes you to a barren field, with just a tree in the middle of it. . “This is where my Bro and I would play when we were young… Well, I would play and he would watch me. And this is where he used to train me when I got old enough to hold a sword… This is the most perfect place to look at the stars.” He explains; his voice faltering a little when mentioning his brother.

                You lie down next to each other and look at the sky for a while, before he sits up and you can see that dangerous smirk on his lips.

                “Hey, Karkitty, have I already told you I love you today?” He speaks with his face inches apart from yours.

                “No, not today. You’re really a lousy Matesprit.” You lean in for a kiss, but the fucker has the guts to back off, and that annoys you a little. “So…?” You ask, letting the annoyance show in your voice.

                “So what?”

                “Aren’t you going to say it?”

                “Nah.” He shrugs and you look at him in disbelief. “I’m gonna show you.” Now, that sounds interesting.

                He treats your body with utmost care and tenderness. You massage his scalp while he plants soft kisses on your chest and stomach and flinch a little in pleasure when he finds your nipples. He gives you the most fucking amazing blowjob ever, while pumping you tail and his fingers in an out of your dripping nook.

He tries to dismiss you when you’re about to return the favor, but your stubbornness wins the battle and after giving some special attention to his erection, you impale yourself on it and set up a quick pace. You both come at the same time and end up asleep under the stars, with your overcoat covering your naked bodies.

 

* * *

 

                You wake up to the first lights of the sun, early in the morning. You look at the sleeping boyfriend curled up beside you. His right leg is thrown on top of yours and his arms are clutching you like a teddy bear. You wish the serene expression on his face could last forever and never be replaced by one of pain again. He wakes up too and your eyes meet. You’ll never get tired of looking into them. So deep. So beautiful. So perfect. So full of love. You wonder if he thinks the same about you and get your answer when he puts his hands on your cheeks and pecks your lips a few times.

                “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” You blush, but don’t look away.

                “You too.” You reply and your words couldn’t be more sincere.

                He searches for his abandoned clothes and starts to put them back on. “Come on, let’s go home.” You dress up too and take his hand interlacing your fingers and marveling on the fact that they fit so perfectly together.

                On the way home you look up to the sky and see dark grey clouds getting closer. “We’d better get inside quick.”

                You both make a run for the house when the first large drops of rain start falling on your heads and seek refuge in the warm and dry place.

                It’s oddly dark inside. You don’t remember having closed the curtains. At least not all of them. Even the white curtains of the kitchen were pulled close. You sniff the air, searching for some smell that shouldn’t be there. Sulfur, specifically. Your nose catches nothing, but you keep close to Dave in a protective way, still.

                Your expression turns into one of horror when you make your way through the house and see streams of color on the walls: green, yellow, orange, teal, purple, pink, all adorning the wallpaper in handprints and random patterns. Dave is clutching your overcoat lightly.

                “What’s going on, Karkat?” He asks, unsure.

                “I don’t know, but it’s not good.”

                He steps closer to you. “Why is there all this paint on the walls? And who the hell did this?”

                “This is no paint, Dave. It’s blood.” You say, the seriousness of the situation finally catching up.

                “Fuck.”

                A trail of blood, with the colors of the rainbow, traces a path from the hallway up the stairs to Dirk’s bedroom. You look at Dave and see his eyes like stone, determination showing on his face.

                “I’m not going in there. I don’t give a fuck anymore about who did this. Let’s go home or somewhere else. Anywhere.” He turns to you with pleading eyes. “Please, Karkat.”

                You look into those eyes and almost give in. But you can’t. You have to end this, or else you and Dave can never be free. “I have to do this. For us.” You say, taking his hands in yours.

                “Fine… But I’m coming with you.”

                “Like hell you are. You’re going to stay down there, in the kitchen, and run if I tell you to. Understood?” He frowns, and you know he doesn’t like one bit to be bossed around. But he nods anyway and turns to the stairs. You grab his wrist and pull him back. You kiss him like your life depended on it, then hug him close. “I have an idea of what’ll, or better, who, will be in there and I just want you to know that I love you, okay? Whatever happens, don’t forget about me, please.” You whisper. You know what you’re going to face and you’re not sure how bad things are going to go.

                “Shut the fuck up! You’re not gonna die in there! You’ll beat to ashes whoever is in there and you’re gonna come back to me and we’ll live happily ever fucking after, you hear me?” He nearly screams at you and you bring him close for another forceful kiss.

                “Just don’t forget me.” You hear a noise inside the bedroom. “Now go.”

                He looks at you one more time before turning around and climbing down the stairs.

                You take a shaky breath and push he door open. It’s completely dark inside with the thick curtains pulled close, but you can smell it. Sulfur. It fills the room like a drug and it makes you sick. You hear a low laugh and your mind travels back to the last time you found him like that. You still had your power back then. Now it’ll be just you and your weapon against the Boss of all demons.

                “Gamzee.” You say, almost growling.

                “Hello, Karbro. Came to join the motherfucking party?” He says, switching the nightstand light on. You look in horror to the beheaded faces of some demons you used to know. He did it. He killed everyone. And he came for you now. Just like Vriska said. You don’t see her head there, though, and wonder what happened to her. But just for a second, before you turn your attention back to the Boss as he charges bare handed. You’re taken by surprise and don’t summon your sickle in time. His clawed fingers manage to scratch your face and you cover the wound with one hand while summoning your weapon with the other. You retaliate the attack with a blow on his right cheek, while blocking his low punch with the sickle.

                You lose yourself to your rage, throwing punches and swinging your weapon dangerously, like a madman. All the time Gamzee was smiling, laughing at you, as if this was just child’s play. You lose your balance, stepping on one of the heads scattered around the room, and fall next to the window. Your sickle flies out of your grasp and lends on the other side of the room. You reach for it, but the Boss stops you with a foot on your arm. He steps on it with all his strength, and you hear a loud crack. Great, your left arm is useless now. You try to prop yourself up with your right hand, but Gamzee is faster. He grabs the collar of your overcoat and lifts you up.

                “It’s the end, motherfucker.” He growls, close to your face.

                You spit on him. “Go fuck yourself.” And pushes him away with your right hand while falling back, out of the window. You land roughly, too dizzy to flap your wings and minimize the damage.

                Gamzee lands a few steps away. You look up and can see Dave through the kitchen window. His face is a mask of complete horror. It doesn’t suit him at all. The pouring rain makes everything blurry.

                The Boss gets closer and kicks you in the stomach. You curl up in pain. He kicks you in the head and you feel a new wound open and more blood comes out of it. You’re covered in red and purple by now, as it seems you managed to hurt him a little too. You gather your remaining strength and summon your sickle from the bedroom as Gamzee bring his foot down to crush your head.

                You get out of its reach by short and get up quickly, stumbling a bit. Your left arm lies limp at your side; your right hand holding the sickle in an attacking position.

                _‘I have to keep Dave safe.’_ Is all you can think. It’s all that’s keeping you from giving up this fight. You can barely stand with all your wounds, a broken arm, and more lost blood than someone should have. But you still get up and fight. For Dave.

                Gamzee snickers at you. “You really think you can motherfucking beat me in this? You really think you’ll get out of here alive, motherfucker? No, no, no. That’s not going to happen, bro. You’ll die here, just like all the others.” And he charges, consumed by the madness.

                You charge too, sickle in hand, aiming for a low blow, and he prepares for attacking and blocking your assault, but you change the position of the weapon on the last minute, making an arc above his head and bringing it down on the other side, opening a big and deep cut on his neck, while you feel a sharp pang on your chest. He lifts both hand to cover it and try to stop the blood from coming out, but it’s useless.

                “I-I’m s…. s-sorry.” He says, falling to the ground. His eyes no longer have madness in them, and you catch a glimpse of regret, before they become lifeless. You watch as he turns to ashes and fall on your knees. You don’t know why you feel so weak all of the sudden. You look down and see a knife buried in your chest, close to your heart. You try to take it off but it hurts too much. You didn’t see it on Gamzee’s hands.

                You see Dave’s shape coming running to you. _‘Why is he so blurred?’_ You think. He falls on his knees by your side and lays you on his lap.

                “Dave.” You say. You voice is hoarse and it’s getting difficult to breathe. You feel something salty falling on your face and realize he’s crying. “Dave, don’t cry.”

                He doesn’t say anything, just wipes tears from your face. Apparently you’re crying too. He touches your forehead with his. “Please don’t go. Please don’t leave me. I need you.”

                “Dave….” It’s getting hard to concentrate on the words. The world is turning black on the edges. “Dave, I…. I love you, Dave. Don’t… forg-…get me… okay?” You look up to meet those red eyes for one last time. “P-promise… me.”

                “I promise Karkat. I promise. I love you.” He kisses your face. “I p-promise.” He sobs loudly now. You don’t like to hear him sobbing. You want to make him laugh.

                But you can’t. Everything turns black and you seize to be.


	16. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, so, this is the final chapter... Thank you all for reading this fic, I hope you liked! :3

                Your name is John Egbert and you’re on your way to visit your friend Dave. You drive through the crowded streets of the city until you reach a less populated neighborhood. You park your car in front of the Paradise Psychiatric Hospital. Leaning on the wheel you sigh. You’ve already cried too much over his situation. It feels like your tears have dried by now.

                You leave the car with a small package in hand and go for the door. The lady in the reception already knows you. You’ve come here every month for the past three years. She asks about the package and you say it’s a gift for his 24th birthday. She smiles and lets you go to his room.

                You knock on the door, letting him know you’re there, and enter. He wouldn’t have come to answer the door. You close the door behind you and watch him for a moment. He’s by the window, leaning on the glass, looking away to the horizon, but his eyes seem as lifeless as ever. You approach him and touch his shoulder. He doesn’t make any motion of acknowledgment aside from turning to you and going to sit on his bed, not looking at your face once.

                You can’t bear to look at him like this and tears start pooling on the corner of your eyes. You don’t fight them and say the things you’ve been keeping inside for so long. “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m sorry I listened to Vriska all that time ago. I’m sorry I abandoned you. I shouldn’t have done this. When she came back home all beaten up that night, she told me everything and I dumped her. I tried to call you, but you wouldn’t answer. I went to your apartment, but you weren’t there and everything was broken. I was so afraid. I thought I would never see you again. Then you just appeared on my doorstep four days later, all dirty and weak. You haven’t spoken to anyone since… I just want my best friend back…”

                You wipe away the tears and focus on the gift you brought him. “But, hey, happy birthday!” You say, trying to get an emotion, an expression, a word, anything from him. But it’s useless, just like all the other times. You go on, still. “I got you something.” You reach for the package beside you and put it in his lap. He just stares at it.

                “Come on, open it!” You take his hands and put them on the wrapping paper, ripping it off with his fingers. Inside there’s a small box. You know he won’t open it, so you take it from his lap and open it yourself. “Here, let me help you.”

                You reach inside and take the pointy shades he used to wear and the aviator glasses that replaced them later. “I thought you would miss them, so I brought them back to you.” You say, with a weak smile. He shows no emotion, but reaches for both the shades. He stands up and goes to the mirror on the wall next to his wardrobe. He puts the pointy shades on, frowns and takes them off. Then, he puts the aviators on, frowns again and takes them off. You smile at the show of emotion and all those expressions. Hope fills your heart and tells you that maybe someday your friend will be back.

                But it goes away as soon as it came when you see Dave looking at the mirror again, staring his own red eyes. “You left me.” He says to his reflection; his voice is hoarse by the lack of use. “You’re not coming back.” A single tear rolls down his face. “I love you.”

                “Who are you talking about?” You ask, trying to get him to answer.

                “I won’t forget.” He says, still looking at his image on the mirror.

                He then turns around, his eyes as lifeless as before, and goes back to his spot by the window.

                You sigh and turn around to leave. You won’t be coming back the next month. Your heart can’t take the sight of him like that anymore. It’s too painful.

                “Bye, Dave.”

                You close the door behind you and wipe a tear away. You thought you were out of them.

                You were wrong.


End file.
